The Flemish government sticks to the rule that it should provide services such as schools, child care, social and cultural provisions for one-third of the population of Brussels. This reflects a spirit of openness: the provisions are not just there for “ethnic” Flemish (they make up less than one-third of the population of Brussels), but for anyone who wishes to make use of them. The idea behind this is that it might result in a more positive attitude towards the Flemish and the Dutch language in general.

This “one-third rule” has brought great successes, such as the Ancienne Belgique, Brussels’ greatest rock concert hall. Another success story is Dutch-language education. The Flemish schools in Brussels are increasingly popular because of the quality of the education and the fact that it is the best way to learn Dutch at an early age – knowing Dutch being a prerequisite for many jobs. The Flemish schools in Brussels now welcome children of every background, to the point that pupils who speak Dutch at home have become a minority.

This spirit of openness requires a lot of money, though, at a time when the Flemish government has to tighten its belt. So when the news came that Brussels will need another 23,000 school places by 2015, minister for education Pascal Smet (sp.a) reacted that Flanders might not keep up at the same rate. Extra school capacity, Smet said, is “first and foremost the responsibility of the French-speaking community. Should we really finance the education of children whose parents do not have Dutch as their second, third or even fourth language?”

Now that is a tricky one. In Flanders many people would answer “no” to this. But then again, Flemish policy has worked in the past. The Flemish, in Brussels and elsewhere, are no longer looked down upon. Students who have gone through the Dutch-language education system are better off linguistically than those wo went to French-language schools. The open spirit, in other words, may be just what Brussels needs at this moment.