Services publics et missions de service public en Belgique – Etat des lieux

This paper presents various possible ways of organizing public services, focusing on economic services entrusted with a public service mission. Sections 2 and 3 give a general overview of the public sector in Belgium and public enterprises in particular. It shows that the management contract has become the main instrument for ‘managing’ a public service mission in Belgium and for supervising its organisation. The federal legislation, which served as a model for public service contracts for the other levels of government, is explained in particular in Section 4. Various illustrations of companies – presented in the appendix to this paper – make it possible to detail certain missions entrusted by contract Management and by delegation of public service mission at various institutional levels in Belgium. Finally, Section 6 recalls the importance of investments in order to ensure quality public services.