Benelux

Benelux
Location of  Benelux  (dark green) on the European continent  (dark grey)  —  [Legend]
Official languages		Dutch and French, non-official: Frisian, German and Luxembourgish.
Membership		Belgium  Netherlands  Luxembourg
Website http://www.benelux.be

The Benelux is an economic union in Western Europe that comprises three neighbouring countries, the Kingdom of Belgium, the Kingdom of Netherlands, and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, and lies in the north western European region between France and Germany. The Union's name is formed from the beginning of each country's name; it was possibly created for the Benelux Customs Union,^[1] although according to The Economist it was coined somewhat earlier, in August 1946, by that newspaper's correspondent in Belgium.^[2] . It is now used in a more generic way to refer to the cultural, economic, and geographic grouping.

In 1951, these countries joined West Germany, France, and Italy to form the European Coal and Steel Community, the earliest version of the modern European Union.

The main institutions of the Union are the Committee of Ministers, the Parliament, the Council of the Union, the Court of Justice, the Secretariat-General, the Organization for Intellectual Property.

The Benelux Secretariat-General is located in Brussels. It is the central administrative pillar of the Benelux Economic Union. It handles the secretariat of the Committee of Ministers, the Council of Economic Union and the various committees and working parties. Moreover, it ensures the registry of the Benelux Court of Justice.

Politics

A Benelux Parliament (originally referred to as Interparliamentary Consultative Council) was created in 1955. This parliamentary assembly is composed of 21 members of the Dutch parliament, 21 members of the Belgian national and regional parliaments, and 7 members of the Luxembourgish parliament.

In 1944, the three countries signed the London Customs Convention, the treaty that established the Benelux Customs Union. Ratified in 1947, the treaty was in force from 1948 until being supplanted by the Benelux Economic Union. The treaty establishing the Benelux Economic Union (Benelux Economische Unie/Union Économique Benelux) was signed on February 3, 1958 and came into force in November 1, 1960 to promote the free movement of workers, capital, services, and goods in the region. Under the Treaty the Union implies the co-operation of economic, financial and social policies.

Law

The Benelux Economic Union involves an intergovernmental cooperation. Decisions are taken unanimously.

The unification of the law of the three Benelux countries is mainly achieved by regulations of its Committee of Ministers, that only bind the three states, but are not directly applicable in their internal legal orders. They only become legally valid after having been incorporated into national law.

The Treaty establishing the Benelux Economic Union has provided the Committee of Ministers with the following legal instruments: decisions, conventions, recommendations and directives.

The Committee of Ministers can promulgate decisions in the fields for which it has competence - those fields are explicitly set down in the Union Treaty or the additional conventions. When the Committee of Ministers adopts a decision, it immediately becomes binding on the three governments. For a decision to be also applicable to the citizen, it must be transposed into national law.

The Union Treaty is not exhaustive. For this reason, Article 19 of the Treaty provides that the Committee of Ministers may conclude additional conventions. These therefore constitute extensions of the Union Treaty. They are submitted to the national parliaments for approval in keeping with the ratification procedure applied in each of the Member States. Thus, there is a large number of Benelux conventions in a wide range of subject matters.^[3]

Approval of a recommendation by the Committee of Ministers is not legally binding, but rather a moral stance by the three governments. Recommendations are not devoid of any binding effect in that their approval implies an undertaking in view of their execution.

The Committee of Ministers can issue directives to the Council of Economic Union, the Committees, the General Secretariat and the joint services.

In 1965, the treaty establishing a Benelux Court of Justice was signed. It entered into force in 1975. The Court, composed of judges from the highest courts of the three States, has to guarantee the uniform interpretation of common legal rules. This international judicial institution is located in Brussels.

The Benelux is particularly active in the field of intellectual property. The three countries established a Benelux Trademarks Office and a Benelux Designs Office, both situated in The Hague. In 2005, they concluded a treaty establishing a Benelux Organization for Intellectual Property which replaced both offices upon its entry into force on September 1, 2006. This Organization is the official body for the registration of trademarks and designs in the Benelux. In addition, it offers the possibility to formally record the existence of ideas, concepts, designs, prototypes and the like.

Geography, demographics and languages

Minority languages, regional languages and dialects in the Benelux. Pink are Langues d'oïl (French), yellowish and orange are Low Franconian (Dutch), green are Low Saxon, blue are Frisian, and maroon are Central German dialects. Dutch and French are the official languages of the Benelux and its institutions.

Out of the total of about 27.7 million people living in the member states, 22.61 million (82%) live in the Netherlands or the Flemish Region, where Dutch is the sole official language (though Frisian is an official language in Friesland). The officially French-speaking Walloon Region has 3.5 million inhabitants (12.5%), while a majority of the Brussels-Capital Region (3.8%) —although officially bilingual French-Dutch— is also Francophone. Luxembourg (1.74%) is officially trilingual with Luxembourgish as a "national language", the latter being a standardised High German dialect. Combined with the German-speaking Community of Belgium, this adds up to an estimated 2% of native German-speakers.

Although it is not an official language of the Benelux and its institutions, Belgium and Luxembourg recognise German as one of the official national languages. In Friesland, in the north of the Netherlands, Frisian is co-official with Dutch.

The Benelux region has a total population of about 27,725,734 and occupies an area of approximately 74,640 square kilometres (28,820 sq mi). Thus, the Benelux has a population density of 371/km² (958/sq mi).

Sports

In 2000, Belgium and the Netherlands jointly hosted the UEFA European Championship. In June 2007, representatives of the three countries announced they would bid, as a single political entity, for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.^[4]

Future

The Treaty between the Benelux countries establishing the Benelux Economic Union was for a period of 50 years. During the following years and even more after the creation of the European Union, the Benelux cooperation focused on developing other fields of activity within a constantly changing international context.

At the end of the 50-year period, the governments of the three Benelux-countries considered that it was time for renewal, taking into account the new aspects of the Benelux-cooperation – such as security – and the new federal state structure in Belgium.

Thus, the treaty establishing the Benelux Economic Union will expire in 2010 and will be replaced by a new legal framework (Treaty revising the Treaty establishing the Benelux Economic Union), which was signed on June 17, 2008. This renewed Treaty has been concluded for an undetermined duration.

The name of the "Benelux economic union" will change to Benelux union to reflect this broader scope.

The main objectives of the treaty are the continuation and enlargement of the cooperation between the three member states within a larger European context. The renewed Treaty explicitly foresees the possibility for the Benelux-countries to cooperate with other European member States or regional cooperation structures of these countries.

The new Benelux cooperation focuses on three main topics: internal market and economic union, durability, justice and internal affairs.

The number of structures in the renewed Treaty has been reduced and thus simplified. Five Benelux institutions remain: the Benelux Committee of Ministers, the Benelux Council, the Benelux Parliament, the Benelux Court of Justice, the Benelux Secretariat General. Beside these five institutions, the Benelux Organization for Intellectual Property is also present in this Treaty.

See also

• Low Countries

References

External links

• Benelux Economic Union - Official site
• Benelux Parliament - Official site
• Benelux Court of Justice - Official site
• Benelux Office for Intellectual Property - Official site