TheEgmont pact (Dutch:Egmontpact;French:Pacte d'Egmont;German:Egmont-Pakt) of 1977 is an agreement on the reform ofBelgium into a federal state and on the relations between the linguistic communities in the country.[1] The pact was not carried out due to the resignation of the government, but important elements of the pact were used in laterBelgian state reforms.
The pact was agreed upon on May 24, 1977,[2][3] between the majority parties of the governmentTindemans IV, which was a coalition betweenCVP,PSC,BSP-PSB,Volksunie andFDF. It was named after theEgmont Palace inBrussels, where the negotiations took place.
The pact was supplemented with the "Stuyvenberg agreement" later the same year. Both would be called the "Community pact".
The Egmont pact covered agreements on a number of various topics:
The agreement was not put into practice as there was an immediate protest from the Flemish side. Especially the points on Brussels, with the end of institutional equality between French and Dutch speakers, were unacceptable for a lot ofFlemings.
The advice on the law that would have put the Egmont pact in practice was, on a number of points, heavily criticised by theCouncil of State. Resistance against the pact rose within theCVP, and more and more MPs demanded new negotiations. These were refused by the French-speaking parties. The CVP remained divided. On October 11, 1978, in an emotional speech, PMLeo Tindemans unexpectedly announced the resignation of his government.
The Egmont crisis had consequences for some Belgian parties. The radical right wing from theVolksunie separated itself, leading to the creation of thefar rightVlaams Blok political party. One of the last unitary parties in Belgium, the socialistBSP-PSB, was split into aFrench-speaking and aDutch-speaking party. The last remaining unitary party being until today the PVDA-PTB.
Although the Egmont pact itself failed, it was an important exercise towards the federalisation of Belgium. Much of the Egmont pact have been carried out (seeCommunities, regions and provinces of Belgium). Other points were realised much later on, such as the division of the electoral districtBrussels-Halle-Vilvoorde and to some extent the rights for French speakers in theBrussels Periphery.