Voeren
Geography
Country	Belgium
Community	Flemish Community
Region	Flemish Region
Province	Limburg
Arrondissement	Tongeren
Coordinates	50°45′N 05°47′E / 50.75, 5.783Coordinates: 50°45′N 05°47′E / 50.75, 5.783
Area	50.63 km²
Population (Source: NIS)
Population – Males – Females - Density	4,263 (01/01/2006) 50.74% 49.26% 84 inhab./km²
Foreigners	24,73% (01/07/2006)
Economy
Unemployment rate	9.36% (01/01/2006)
Mean annual income	10,485 €/pers. (2003)
Government
Mayor	Huub Broers (Voerbelangen)
Governing parties	Voerbelangen
Other information
Postal codes	3790, 3791, 3792, 3793, 3798
Area codes	04
Web address	www.voeren.be

Sint-Martens-Voeren

Voeren (unofficially Fourons in French) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg. On January 1, 2006, Voeren had a total population of 4,263. The total area is 50.63 km² which gives a population density of 84 inhabitants per km². Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links RedDot. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links Sin_escudo. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... This is an alphabetical list of countries of the world, including independent states (both those that are internationally recognised and generally unrecognised), inhabited dependent territories and areas of special sovereignty. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Belgium_(civil). ... Belgium is a federal state and is composed of three communities, three regions, and four linguistic regions. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Flanders. ... the Flemish community has jurisdiction over Flanders and over the Dutch language institutions in Brussels. ... Belgium is a federal state and is composed of three communities, three regions, and four linguistic regions. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Flanders. ... The Flemish region is one of the three official regions of the Kingdom of Belgium (alongside the Walloon Region and the Brussels-Capital Region). ... Belgium is a federal state and is composed of three communities, three regions, and four linguistic regions. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Limburg is the easternmost province of Flanders (which is one of the three regions of Belgium), and is located west of the Meuse river. ... This is a list of Belgian administrative arrondissements or districts. ... The Arrondissement of Tongeren (Dutch: ; French: ) is one of the three administrative arrondissements in the Province of Limburg, Belgium. ... Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ... Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ... Area is a physical quantity expressing the size of a part of a surface. ... Square kilometre (US spelling: Square kilometer), symbol km², is an SI unit of surface area. ... Statistics Belgium is the main official statistical institution in Belgian offering a large choice of figures. ... Population density by country, 2006 Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. ... Square kilometre (US spelling: Square kilometer), symbol km², is an SI unit of surface area. ... Map of the world with countries colored according to their immigrant population as a percentage of total population: Immigration is the movement of people with large poos from one nation-state to another. ... A mayor (from the Latin māior, meaning larger, greater) is the modern title of the highest ranking municipal officer. ... A coalition is an alliance among entities, during which they cooperate in joint action, each in their own self-interest. ... This is a list of postal codes for Belgium. ... A telephone numbering plan is a plan for allocating telephone number ranges to countries, regions, areas and exchanges and to non-fixed telephone networks such as mobile phone networks. ... A website (alternatively, Web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos and other digital assets that is hosted on a Web server, usually accessible via the Internet or a LAN. A Web page is a document, typically written in HTML, that is almost always accessible via HTTP, a... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1600 × 1200 pixel, file size: 782 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1600 × 1200 pixel, file size: 782 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... A municipality is an administrative entity composed of a clearly defined territory and its population and commonly referring to a city, town, or village, or a small grouping of them. ... Limburg is the easternmost province of Flanders (which is one of the three regions of Belgium), and is located west of the Meuse river. ... is the 1st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... Square kilometre (US spelling: Square kilometer), symbol km², is an SI unit of surface area. ...

Villages

The municipality consists of the six villages: 's-Gravenvoeren, Sint-Pieters-Voeren, Sint-Martens-Voeren, Moelingen, Teuven and Remersdaal. 's-Gravenvoeren is the most important and most populated town of the municipality

Linguistic and political problems

Voeren was originally a part of Limburg, which was a province of the Netherlands. It was transferred to the province of Liège from the French occupation (1794) until 1963 when it was transferred to the province of Limburg, and thus became part of Flanders. That is because after the secession of Belgium from the Netherlands in the 19th century, Limburg was divided into a Dutch and a Belgian province. Voeren, however, was in the Dutch part. This explains its strange geographical location as a Flemish enclave between the Netherlands and Wallonia. Liège is the easternmost province of Wallonia and of Belgium. ... 1794 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Year 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Limburg is the easternmost province of Flanders (which is one of the three regions of Belgium), and is located west of the Meuse river. ... Flanders (Dutch: ) is a large historical region overlapping Belgium, France and the Netherlands. ...

Most native people in Voeren speak a dialect related to German. Voeren is economically dependent on the provinces of Liège and, increasingly, Dutch Limburg and the majority of its inhabitants are Dutch speaking, a significant minority even being Dutch citizens.

Until the beginning of the 20th century people generally didn't bother which administration Voeren came under. People in daily life spoke the local dialect. The government institutions used French and church and school used German or Dutch. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999...

But some influential inhabitants such as the local priest Hendrik Veltmans argued that Voeren was culturally Flemish and actively tried to bring Voeren into Flanders.

In 1932 due to the introduction of new linguistic laws, the linguistic alignment of Voeren was determined (as for all other towns alongside the language border in Belgium) on the basis of the results of the census of 1930. According to this census 81,2% of the population of the six villages that now make up Voeren spoke Dutch and 18,8% declared speaking French, administrative changes were made as a result. The results of the next census held in 1947, were only made public in 1954 and gave a totally different outcome with only 42,9% declaring to speak Dutch and 57,1% French. According to the 1932 legislation this would have meant that the linguistic status of the villages would have changed from Dutch speaking with a French minority into French speaking with a Dutch speaking minority. At that time however, due to the rising political controversy between the Dutch and French speaking communities in Belgium, a parliamentary committee (the so called centrum Harmel) was established to fix, amongst others, the language border once and for all. This committee proposed, notwithstanding the 1947 results (highly disputed by the Flemish), that the six villages were Dutch speaking with special regulations for the French speaking minority to be decided after discussion with the town councils. Year 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1932 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1947 calendar). ... Year 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In 1962 the work of the committee resulted in a proposal of law by the Minister of the Interior Gilson, whereby Voeren would be officially Dutch speaking with language facilities for the French speaking community but keeping Voeren part of the French speaking province of Liège. After fierce debate in parliament this proposal was approved but only after it was decided that Voeren would become part of the Dutch speaking province of Limburg. This switch from Liège to Limburg was received badly by a large extent of the local population because of the region's dependence on Liège. Francophones in particular campaigned for the region to be returned to the province of Liège. Year 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

On January 1, 1977, the six small municipalities were merged to the present-day Voeren municipality. The Francophone and Flemish movements could organize themselves politically more effectively as there was now one instead of six municipal councils. This resulted in political and linguistic strife between the Francophone Retour à Liège (Return to Liège) party and the Flemish Voerbelangen (Voeren's Best Interests) party. The Retour à Liège faction won a majority in the new council. There were also action committees on both sides and gangs who daubed place-name signs and took part in violent demonstrations. The language struggle in Voeren became a national issue, and people from outside the region became involved. is the 1st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also: 1977 (album) by Ash. ...

The linguistic struggle came to a head when José Happart was put forward as mayor in 1983. For one thing, he was alleged to have supported the Francophone gangs in Voeren. However the main problem was the constitutional question of whether someone who couldn't speak Dutch/Flemish could become mayor of a Flemish municipality. Happart was dismissed as mayor for refusing to take a Dutch language test, but appealed against his dismissal, and the question dragged on for years, ultimately causing the Belgian government to fall on October 19, 1987. Year 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar). ... October 19 is the 292nd day of the year (293rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In 1988 concessions to the Francophone inhabitants were made. The powers of the provincial government of Limburg were curtailed and more autonomy was given to the municipality. The government of Wallonia was allowed to build facilities for Francophones in Voeren. Year 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar). ...

In the 1994 municipal elections the Dutch speaking party (Voerbelangen) won a seat more than in earlier elections but was still a minority in the council. In 1995 mayor Happart was forced to leave office. Several national courts of arbitration declared some of the 1988 concessions unconstitutional (e.g. the Walloon building rights).

EU nationals were given suffrage at the municipal level in 1999. This factor was decisive in the 2000 municipal elections because of the important number of Dutch citizens living in Voeren (about 20% of the total population): Voerbelangen won a majority of 53% of the votes and 8 out of 15 local council seats. However, the new majority faced budgetary difficulties, since a lot of debts had been made by the previous administration. Selling several municipal properties like forests and goods was necessary to make the council financially sound. Starting 2003-2004 the council is viable again and new projects are being started to fulfill the promises made during the elections. In the 2006 municipal elections Voerbelangen won again, gaining 61% of the votes and 9 out of 15 council seats. For the first time, Voerbelangen also won the majority of the seats in the council of the OCMW (Public Center for Social Welfare), the social affairs department of the municipality, for which EU nationals may not vote. Year 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar). ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... shelby was here 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Though the violence of the 1970s and 1980s has subsided, some activists still daub graffiti on place-name signs. In December 2006, the Flemish Government decided to abolish all official French translations of Flemish municipalities and villages, including municipalities with language facilities. Therefore, the French names of the Voeren municipality and villages will no longer be used on place-name signs, traffic signs and by municipality and other governments in official documents. This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Results of the linguistic census per village

NL = Dutch speaking FR = French speaking

Tourism

Voeren is an attractive rural area of Belgium, with small villages set in rolling hills, traditional farmhouses, orchards, fields, woods and nature reserves. Hotel, camping and backpackers' hostel accommodation is available in the area. There are also quite a lot of village festivals, since Francophone and Flemish groups organise separate events.

Francophone and Flemish groups seem to agree that tourism will help to solve the Voeren linguistic problem as it helps the local economy and lessens the economic dependency on both Liège and Limburg.

Twin towns

• Vellerat, Switzerland

Vellerat is a municipality in the district of Delémont of the Canton of Jura, Switzerland. ...

External links

• Official website - Dutch and French

	Municipalities in the Province of Limburg, Flanders, Belgium
Hasselt: As | Beringen | Diepenbeek | Genk | Gingelom | Halen | Ham | Hasselt | Herk-de-Stad | Heusden-Zolder | Leopoldsburg | Lummen | Nieuwerkerken | Opglabbeek | Sint-Truiden | Tessenderlo | Zonhoven | Zutendaal |
Maaseik: Bocholt | Bree | Dilsen-Stokkem | Hamont-Achel | Hechtel-Eksel | Houthalen-Helchteren | Kinrooi | Lommel | Maaseik | Meeuwen-Gruitrode | Neerpelt | Overpelt | Peer
Tongeren: Alken | Bilzen | Borgloon | Heers | Herstappe | Hoeselt | Kortessem | Lanaken | Maasmechelen | Riemst | Tongeren | Voeren | Wellen |