
Deelgemeente

A deelgemeente (, literally "part-municipality") or section de commune (French) is a subdivision of a municipality in Belgium and, until March 2014, in the Netherlands as well.
Belgium.
Each municipality of the region of Flanders that existed as a separate entity on 1 January 1961 but no longer existed as such after 1 January 1977 is considered a "deelgemeente" within most municipalities.
In general, these "deelgemeenten" are not a level of administration. Only in the municipality of Antwerp are they the lowest level of administration and are called districts.
The term "deelgemeente" is used in Dutch to refer to such a subdivision of a municipality anywhere in Belgium, municipalities having been merged throughout the country in the 1970s. "Deelgemeenten" usually were independent municipalities before the fusions in the 1970s.
In English and French there is no directly equivalent term, and "deelgemeente" is not normally used when talking about former municipalities in Wallonia or the Brussels Capital Region. In French, the term "ancienne commune" (former/old municipality) or "section de commune" (section of municipality) is generally used. However, when otherwise necessary, the term is usually pronounced in French variably as .
Netherlands.
In the Netherlands, "deelgemeenten" were administrative divisions that could be instituted by any municipality. The city of Amsterdam was the first to do this. In the early 1980s, the municipality was divided into fifteen deelgemeenten. This amount was decreased to eight in 2010. Seven of these were officially called "stadsdeel".
Rotterdam followed in the 1990s and was divided into fourteen "deelgemeenten". "Deelgemeenten" had their own mayor, the "deelgemeentevoorzitter", their own aldermen, "deelgemeentewethouders", and their own elected assembly, the "deelgemeenteraad". "Deelgemeenten" were abolished in March 2014, after the 2014 municipal elections. Since 2014, districts of Amsterdam have a "bestuurscommissie" (literally "governance commission"), and the "deelgemeenten" of Rotterdam are now called "gebieden" (literally "areas").