Politiek is Brussel een tweetalig gewest, maar op straat hoor je een bonte mengeling van talen. Begin deze eeuw sprak slechts 2,5 procent van de Brusselaars geen Frans, Engels of Nederlands. Vandaag is dat opgelopen tot acht procent, zo blijkt uit de jongste taalbarometer van Rudi Janssens (VUB). Maar : “Wie Brussel verlaat, kent wel gemiddeld veel meer Frans en Nederlands dan wie hier aankomt,” zegt Philippe Van Parijs (UCL). En Rudi Janssens : “Brussel is een emancipatiemachine.”
Bruzz, (...)

Five governments
Language policy in the Brussels Capital Region lies within the competences of several governments. Dutch-language and French-language education and culture are under the authority, respectively, of the Vlaamse Gemeenschap (VG) and the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (FWB). However, language policy is not only a matter of education and culture. Moreover, in a region that is increasingly diverse linguistically and whose population is increasinly multilingual, the French-Dutch (...)

Débat : Multilingualism : How can Brussels become an example for the rest of Europe ?
The Jubel Festival for European Democracy (www.jubelfestival.com), held in Brussels’ Parc du Cinquantenaire on 6-7 September 2019 hosted a large set of parallel interactive encounters on a variety of subjects relevant to European democracy. The Marnix Plan for a multilingual Brussels was invited to organize one of them. It took place in the morning of Saturday 7 September under the title “Multilingualism : (...)

Read Marnix Plan co-ordinator Philippe Van Parijs’ interview with the Brussels Times, in which he discusses the history and changing linguistic landscape of the city of Brussels, along with recent proposals by the ULB and the VUB to set up multilingual schools.

On 26th April 2019, the Marnix Plan hosted a debate with politicians from all of the major parties in Brussels. The debate focused on two main questions : What initiatives do you consider to be the most urgent or the most promising as a means of meeting the linguistic challenges and opportunities in Brussels ? What kinds of institutional reforms do you consider necessary in order to enable Brussels to meet its linguistic needs ?
In addition to the political party delegates, we also (...)

De Vrijdaggroep en Plan Marnix nodigen u uit voor een gezamenlijke conferentie over de bevordering van tweetaligheid in Brussel, naar aanleiding van de gemeenteraadsverkiezingen van oktober. Dit zal plaatsvinden op vrijdag 14 september om 17u bij Actiris in Brussel (Sterrenkundelaan30 te 1210 Brussel).
FRANCOPHONES & NEDERLANDSTALIGEN : WAT SAMEN DANS NOS COMMUNES ?
Dans les communes de la Région de Bruxelles-Capitale, les institutions francophones et néerlandophones — écoles, (...)

The Huis van het Nederlands (House of Dutch) launches a pilot project to make the Dutch language more attractive among students in French-speaking schools in Brussels. To show pupils where Dutch is spoken in Brussels and why they need the language, experts will take them on a tour, with information about work, free time and sports. Many Dutch-speaking Brussels institutions are contributing, including the Flemish library and information centre Muntpunt. The pilot project runs from September (...)

Le possible rejet d’Enzo Scifo pour un poste d’entraîneur national pour maîtrise non suffisante du néerlandais relance le débat sur le bilinguisme en Belgique. Petit tour d’horizon de l’état des clichés linguistiques dans Le Soir.