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The municipalities with linguistic facilities or municipalities with facilities ( Dutch: "faciliteitengemeenten", French: "communes à facilités") are a small group of Belgian municipalities with special law provisions to protect rights of their (historic) linguistic minorities.
Basically, in these municipalities it it possible to relate with the local administration, and with the federal administration, in another language than the official language of the Region within which the municipality lies. For instance French-speakers in Flanders and Dutch-and German-speakers in Wallonia, and French-speakers in the German language area may obtain all administrative documents from local public authorities or federal authorities in their mother tongue. In addition, in certain such municipalities, there are also publicly funded schools for the language minority, as well as railway services. For public services and documents from intermediate authorities (such as the provincial and regional authorities), such rights do not exist, or to a very limited measure (e.g. certain summary information).
The roots of these facilities lie in the sixties when Flemish emancipation towards equal rights lead to the constitutional establishment of 4 linguistic areas, each with its legally protected official language: the Flemish area (now also corresponding with the Flemish Region), which is Dutch-speaking, the Brussels area (now the Brussels Capital Region, which is bilingual French-Dutch, the Walloon area (mostly French-speaking, except for the German language area along the border with Germany).
One, among many, of the triggers to the establishment of these linguistic areas was in 1958 the public unrest between French-speakers and Dutch-speakers during the Brussels World Exhibition , e.g. at Wemmel. The then Belgian authorities had organised these events giving a exclusively French-speaking image towards the world. That kind of attitudes from the then mainly French-speaking Belgian elite was deeply ressented all over Flanders.
Before 1961: last linguistic census in Belgium. The way these censuses were conducted was equally ressented in Flanders. It had proven a conduct for the establisment of ever more French-speakers in the Flemish villages around Brussels, where most of these new arrivals were unwilling to respect the Dutch-speaking and Flemish character of those areas. Most of those French-speakjers felt as if they did not have to respect the equal rights of the local Flemish population, this is, as if they had superior rights. Once the number of French-speakers went beyond 50% (at certain points even those considering themselves as 'bilingual' were added in), the municipality was transferred towards the Brussels area, French acquired official status, and the de facto political and administrative life rapidly became dominated by French-speakers, many of the unilingual migrants from Wallonia and Brussels.. Through this mechanism, the Brussels area grew from 6 municipalities in 1830 towards 19 in 1963. Needless to say that the ressentment in Flanders deepened, and more and more frictions arose.
The current French-speaking majorities in the six municipalities with language facilities around Brussels are, according all scientific evidence, mainly the result from immigration of French-speakers from Brussels and Wallonia.
That situation around Brussels (in the so-called 'rim municipalities', see below) differs fondamentally from the situation along the border between Flanders and Wallonia, and between the German and French-speaking areas in Wallonia. There, certain municipalities have had linguistic minorities since several centuries. The language border appears quite stable and peaceful, except for the municipalities of Voeren (French: Fourons) and to a much lesser extent MouscronMouscron ( Dutch: Moeskroen is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. On January 1st, 2004 Mouscron had a total population of 52,290 (25,251 males and 27,039 females). The total area is 40. 08 km² which gives a population density of 1, (Dutch: Moeskroen) and Comines-WarnetonComines-Warneton ( Dutch: Komen-Waasten is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. On January 1st, 2004 Comines-Warneton had a total population of 17,429 (8,456 males and 8,973 females). The total area is 61. 09 km² which gives a popula (Dutch: Komen-Waasten).
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