Walloons commit again to simplification

I attended this morning an impressive conference on simplification organised by Wallonia and the French community, two of the six federated entities in Belgium, serving 3.4 million French speaking Belgians (total population 10.5m). In such a complex instutional setup (two governements and two parliaments just for the francophones) simplifiers have their work cut out for them ! Ministers and senior officials met with stakeholders to present the administrative simplification and egov programmes adopted in February 2010. They were also endeavouring to drum up support for implementation. A dedicated website ("ensemble simplifions") publishes the results of a vast consultation and a wealth of official documents which are quite overwhelming. Each government publishes its list of measures, under six general objectives (simplify the law, reduce burdens for instance), distinguishing horizontal and specific changes to administrative procedures. There is a heavy egov bias, and an emphasis on correct use of the French language. The programmes include commitments to funding and monitoring. Chances of delivery are increased by the merging of the hitherto separate simplification agencies of the two executives into a single entity, with its own website Easi-Wal.
At the federal level, there is also a simplification programme run by an Agency for Administrative Simplification and a website (Kafka.be) which seems discontinued.