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Arrondissement de Lyon, Francia
On 1 April 2018, nearly 20 years after the passage of the first Government of Wales Act introducing devolution in Wales, the Wales Act 2017 came into force. It shifted the Senedd to a reserved powers model of devolution, alongside granting Wales some new taxation and borrowing powers, thus putting Welsh devolution on nearly the same footing as the Scottish model. It greatly reduced the asymmetrical system implemented in 1998 in which Wales was given far more limited powers than Scotland – to reflect historical and social differences between the two constituent parts of the United Kingdom (UK) – meaning that the Senedd had to continually play constitutional catch-up. And yet, in the week that the Senedd turned 25, substantial reforms to the way the Welsh Parliament works were adopted (notably expanding it to 96 members), thus marking the next chapter in the ever-evolving story of devolution, and taking Wales on a different path from Scotland. Since 1998, it has tried to develop its own model, with successive First Ministers (FMs) promoting a unionist form of nationalism in Wales, rather than independence, and launching ambitious policies based on sustainable development whereby it has aspired to show ‘the Welsh Way Forward’ to Scotland.
