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Social Security is a competence of the Federal State (see 1.2.2). At the beginning of the new millennium, older social security measures aimed at artists were reformed. This resulted in legislation (see chapter 11 of the “Programmawet” of 24 December 2002) that enabled artists that receive unemployment benefits to practise their art more freely. Some specific regulations to this legal framework were added in later years (especially 2014). This framework (also referred to as ‘social status of the artist’ or “sociaal statuut van de kunstenaar”) consists of a number of exceptions and adjustments to general regulations on social security that... read more →

The Culture Pact (“Cultuurpact”, which was codified in the law of 16 July 1973) is an important part of Federal legislation with regard to the allocation of public funding for culture. It was also set out in a Flemish decree (28 January 1974) and has served as a fundament for other decrees on the level of the Communities. Building on art. 11 of the Belgian Constitution (see 2.2 and 4.1.1), the Culture Pact was intended to protect “ideological and philosophical factions” (the official title of the Culture Pact Law is “Wet van 16 juli 1973 waarbij de bescherming van de... read more →

The Belgian Constitution (i.e. “De gecoördineerde Grondwet” of 17 February 1994; see also 2.2) guarantees a number of fundamental rights for Belgian citizens, which include the freedom of expression (art. 19), the right to cultural development (art. 23, 5°), the freedom of press and prohibition of censorship (art. 25; see also 2.5.3), and the freedom of language use (art. 30; see also 4.1.8). The Constitution determines cultural affairs as competences of the Communities, as well as cultural cooperation between the Communities and international cooperation on cultural affairs (art. 127, §1 and art. 130, §1; see also 1.2.3, 1.2.6, and 1.4.1).... read more →

The Arts Decree is the main legislative framework in Flanders and Brussels for supporting the professional arts (see also section 3). It provides open and flexible support schemes for diverse artistic initiatives, which are granted funding on the basis of peer-assessed artistic quality. At the same time, primarily the individual qualities of funding applications are judged. There is no procedure for assessing a ‘right’ balance between qualified applications. This poses a problem in a context of pressure on public expenditure for the arts (see 7.1.3). If there is not enough funding for all artistic initiatives deemed deserving of subsidies, how... read more →

Digitisation has had a profound impact on the functioning of the cultural field in Flanders and Brussels. It has especially received attention in relation to sectors where new technologies have disrupted the traditional functioning of value chains, such as the music and the audiovisual sector (see resp. 3.5.3 and 3.5.4). When summarising the debate on digitisation and cultural sectors[1], we can roughly discern the following issues: An intensifying attention economy: the creation and dissemination of culture has been drastically democratized thanks to the possibilities of digital technologies. This ensures that many providers of culture are active in the digital domain,... read more →

In 2016, cultural magazine Rekto:Verso published a special issue on gender inequality in the arts. Together with results of research on the working conditions of artists (see 2.3) that revealed a gender pay gap in artistic professions, debate among professionals and policy makers was sparked. Then minister of Culture Sven Gatz (2014-2019) ordered further research on gender inequality in creative sectors. The debate was reinvigorated in the wake of the #MeToo movement in 2017 and anonymous testimonials about gender-based and sexual harassment and gender discrimination that named prominent television producers and artists from Belgium. Gatz ordered a second survey in... read more →

Public debate in Flanders and Brussels about the role of arts and culture in society usually occurs at moments when public support for arts and culture is called into question. Examples are budget cuts in funding for culture (see 7.1.3), concerns about the role of arts and culture in the curriculum of schools (see 5.2), or the allocation of support measures in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. Diverse arguments (economic, aesthetic, emancipatory, bildung-related, etc.) are used to make the case for support. A number of publicly funded surveys have looked into the different values and roles that arts and... read more →

In Belgium, Media is a competence of the Communities, with each having its own legal framework for media and its own media regulator. In the Flemish Community, Media is a separate policy field from Culture, of which Benjamin Dalle (2019-2024) is the sitting minister for Flanders (in the previous term, Sven Gatz was both minister of Culture and Media). The independent Flemish Regulator of the Media monitors media concentration, but does not have the authority to take regulatory action. The Flemish government subsidizes the Pascal Decroos Fund, which gives grants to projects in investigative journalism. The Vlaamse Vereniging voor Journalisten... read more →

Language, language communities, and language areas are fundamental to understanding the evolution of the Belgian State and the policies that govern its society. One important factor in this evolution is the striving for language rights for Dutch speakers since the inception of the Belgian State in 1830, when French was the only official language. These rights were gradually acquired throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century. Note that this did not result in a bi- or multilingual state: different language areas and communities were codified into official policies (see also 4.1.8). In 1962, a language border was defined, dividing Belgium into... read more →

(Coordinated) actions for equal opportunities are taken from within different government levels (the Communities, the Federal State, provincial and local authorities) and policy areas in Belgium (including the separate Flemish policy field of Equal Opportunities). Flemish anti-discrimination policies are aimed at equal opportunities on the basis of sex, gender, gender identity, gender expresssion, age, ethnic-cultural background, nationality, sexual orientation, disabilities, health condition, language, socio-economic position, religion and ideology, and other legally defined protected traits of people. Important institutions for realising equal opportunities and combatting discrimination on the Flemish and (inter)federal level are UNIA[1] (see also 2.5.1), the Flemish Ombudsman Service... read more →