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OECD Territorial Reviews: Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium

image of OECD Territorial Reviews: Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium

The OECD Territorial Review of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium, provides an in-depth assessment of the trends, challenges and opportunities for sustainable and inclusive urban development in the region. It aims to help tackle the so-called ‘Brussels paradox’ between a highly performing region in terms of economic wealth creation and competitiveness but relatively poor social conditions. The region is also grappling with a shortage of affordable and quality housing, as well as several mobility challenges, including a high reliance on individual cars and traffic congestion, resulting in high commuting times and pollution levels, despite good accessibility to public transport. Although a comprehensive urban and land-use planning system exists, there is a lack of co-ordination with the surrounding regions and municipalities to drive more effective policies on housing, mobility, and other infrastructure investments. This review also examines the governance and institutional framework and suggests policy actions to strengthen co-ordination and co-operation mechanisms, and promote incremental collaboration at the metropolitan level. Finally, the review provides recommendations to enhance public finances in the region, focusing on better compensating for its additional charges, co-ordinating public investment among levels of government more efficiently, and establishing a metropolitan fund.

English

Executive summary

Although endowed with the smallest surface area and population size among the three regions making up the federation of Belgium, the Brussels-Capital Region enjoys a dynamic demography and a competitive economy. Home to 1.24 million people (10.6% of Belgium’s population) living in 19 municipalities including the City of Brussels, the region has grown rapidly (by 22% in 2005-22, compared to about 8-9% in the Territorial Level 2 [TL2] regions of Berlin [Germany] and Paris [France] for example). This growth has been primarily fuelled by international migration: in 2022, 53% of the region’s working-age population was foreign-born. The region is also relatively young: at 27.9% in 2022, its young-age dependency (people aged 15 or younger as a percentage of people aged 15-64) was one of the highest among all OECD TL2 regions, much higher than in Vienna, Austria (21.0%) or Hamburg, Germany (21.5%), for instance.

English Also available in: French

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