Notes
- For further information, see <www.monumenten wacht.be>.
- The political structure of Belgium is rather complex after four phases of state reform between 1970 and 1993. Today, Belgium is a federal state where the decision-making power is no longer exclusively in the hands of the federal level. The management of the country falls to several partners, which exercise their competences independently in different fields. The Kingdom is subdivided in three regions (Flemish, Brussels Capital, and Walloon) and three communities (Dutch, French, and German). The competences on the regional level are divided between those regions and communities. The regions are responsible for all territorially linked matters such as transport, town and country planning, environment, cultural heritage, and employment; the communities’ competences are, amongst others, education, culture, and welfare. This political structure explains why Monumentenwacht can only operate in the Flemish region. The Flemish region is in itself divided in five provinces. This has determined the structure of the organization.
- See also the paper by Jonas Van Looveren in this issue.
- The Flemish government is currently working on a new Decree on the Immovable Heritage. This umbrella decree is meant to replace all previous decrees (i.e. Monument Decree of 1976, Archaeology Decree of 1993, and Landscape Decree of 1996). Since the current laws, decrees and regulations on immovable heritage have tended to come about organically, the different inventories, protection statuses, procedures, and enforcement rules are not always ideally attuned to each other. Furthermore, as a result of consecutive amendments, this body of regulations had in recent decades become very incoherent. The new decree will be in keeping with an integrated and holistic approach to the immovable heritage concept and is designed to ensure the management and conservation of the value of our landscapes, monuments and archaeological sites. This decree will also effectively implement the principles of the Malta Convention. A first draft proposal of this decree was presented on 23 July 2010.
- <http://www.archeomw.nl/en.home> [accessed 20 February 2012].