Subject: Belgian lower order claves
Date: Mar 14, 2001 @ 10:03
Author: Peter Smaardijk (Peter Smaardijk <peter.smaardijk@...>)
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Brendan Whyte wrote:

> >If you accept the above argument, the only islands which would meet
> >Brendan's strict definition of an enclave
>
> ...AT SEA...
>
> >would be those whose
> >territorial sea is totally surrounded by the territorial sea of
> >another state - and, as yet, I have been unable to think of any....
>
> Thanks Martin.
>
> Enclaves are most useful when considered for areas of equal/similar
> sovereignty, ie EITHER internal units OR nations, OR EEZs/Highseas, etc.
> Thus we can think of high seas enclaves in EEZs or EEZs inside other EEZs
> (ie St Pierre, Channel Islands, Monaco) or national level enclaves in
> nations, but enclaves at one level bordering on a unit of higher level of
> sovereignty are less interesting as they have fewer practical implications.
> Hence less interest in the 2 or 3 Belgian provincial fragments that adjoin
> its neighbouring nations.

There are two exclaves (I would say)/fragments (you would say) I know of: the municipality of Voeren
and the municipality of Comines-Warneton. They are not only provincial, but also regional. This is
one level up. Belgium is a federal state, divided into three regions. Two of them are divided into
provinces, and these into municipalities. The third region, Brussels, lacks the province layer and
is directly divided into (19) municipalities.
The third provincial 'fragclave' was Sugny (province of Luxembourg, but surrounded by province of
Namur and France) was abolished on 1-1-1977, in the giant Belgian municipal reshuffle that took
place.

On the subject of claves of a lower order (e.g. municipalities): In Brussels, the municipality of
Elsene/Ixelles is cut in two by Brussels (the Louizalaan/Avenue Louise area). On older maps, the
same goes for the municipality of St. Gillis/St. Gilles. On newer maps, the small part east of the
Louizalaan, at the Little Ring, is absent. Does it still exist? Or has it been added to either
Brussels or Elsene/Ixelles?

Peter S.