r/Benelux • u/Empty-Caterpillar-36 • May 26 '26
What should not be done and what should we merge if the Benelux were a single state?
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u/Serious-Wheel-2747 May 27 '26
If we REALLY have to... merge the national teams for sports, because getting actual good results will trump any tribal instincts. Anything directly related to language (public broadcasters, education) should remain somewhat autonomous or you will get very angry pushback. Even with Flemish vs Dutch.
That being said, we should federalise as much as possible, and not try to emulate the Belgian community/region system.
Lots of friction will be inevitable in a country that is dominated by one language and that has three important minority languages. If you create a flexible system where local services have to be provided based on the most prevalent languages of the inhabitants, you will end up with extreme political controversy because of migration at the borders, a french town might suddenly flip to become dutch. Not to mention that Arabic and English will suddenly become the most important secondary language in many places.
If you create a rigid system where you lock in the languages are they are now and create regions based on the most prevalent languages then that is artificial and in due time will not correspond to the actual needs of citizens.
Creating a truly efficient government that tries to keep all language minorities happy is extremely difficult.
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u/Empty-Caterpillar-36 May 28 '26
I guess we have to delete the regional things to get a union, that's a problem
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u/Legal-Stranger-4890 May 27 '26
Make English the universal official second language for all regions. not too far from that already.
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u/sweetleaf642 May 28 '26
In Switzerland, they just use English as a Lingua Franca without making it official. Und ça klopt.
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May 28 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Borbit85 Jun 01 '26
How do you get to 7? Each of those countries just has one main government. Or if your counting the layers underneath you get to a lot more than 7.
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u/JMvanderMeer May 27 '26
I don't really see what can be gained from this that can't more effectively be gained through wider European integration. So to my mind the thing that is not to be done is merging the Benelux into a single state. Cooperating makes sense, but a single state wouldn't benefit us.
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u/Megendrio May 28 '26
The benefit is that the Benelux is culturally and historically closer than the EU.
Yes, going for a federalised EU would be the optimal solution, but a federalised Benelux can nog only be a template for what a FEU could be like, it also doesn't have to deal with large economical inbalance between member states.
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u/JMvanderMeer May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26
In my experience as a northern Dutchman who has lived both in Belgium as in Germany I would question that logic. In my admittedly biased opinion the Netherlands is culturally much closer to Germany than it is to Belgium. I felt right at home in Germany pretty much immediately. Even after years of living in Belgium it never stopped feeling like a foreign country with a different culture and very different mentality. Any integration of the Benelux that comes at the cost of making cooperation with Germany harder sounds like a setback to me, not a way forward. Let's not stick to outdated concepts like 'the Low Countries' but just embrace Europe.
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u/Megendrio May 28 '26
You don't have to convince me to embrace Europe. The problem is: a majority of people won't, while a BeNeLux inside of Europe might encounter less adversity.
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u/HansTilburg May 28 '26
Let’s not get a Dutch government, a Flanders government, a Walloon government, a Luxemburg government, AND a federal government. Just one national government.
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u/Cz1975 May 28 '26
Replace all politicians by AI. Sadly, that may actually be an improvement.
Make English the official language. Recently purchased an induction stove, manual in more than 20 languages. That doesn't feel much like an appropriate business model.
Ban Dutch cheeses, annex the North of France for better stuff.
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u/Empty-Caterpillar-36 May 28 '26
And also the western part of germany, and yes, replacing politicians by AI would be maybe animprovement
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u/BonsaiBobby May 28 '26
I would never want to live in one state with the Belgians. They are so arrogant about everything. Very annoying people, always something negative to say about the Dutch. I'm happy they live in their own - failed - state. I wish them good luck paying off all that public debt and get rid of the calimero-complex.
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u/Hunnieda_Mapping Limburg May 28 '26
always something negative to say about the Dutch
the irony of this statement
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May 28 '26
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u/Megendrio May 28 '26
Its already not really working in belgium
By design... who's design you might ask? The same people claiming that it no longer works... every change they've forced in the past 60 years has made it worse instead of better.
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u/QuirkyReader13 May 28 '26
As a Walloon : You don’t get to ‘let the French have’ anything, man. The best France is the smallest France.
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u/Greencoat1815 May 26 '26
Make French an official language but instead Walloon.
On a serious note, do not let it become a Dutch dominated nation like the UK is an English dominated nation.
Give the parts of the union autonomie on certain things, or a lot.