Federations of the World

Federation Maps and Fact Sheets

Belgium
A federation since 1993
Federal Portal

Constituent units

• 3 Regions, territorially defined: Flemish Region; Brussels-Capital Region; Wallon (French) Region.
  3 Communities, based on language: Flemish Community, French Community, German-Speaking Community.
  • Map of Communities and Regions
  • General map of Belgium
  • Official Websites of Governments of Communities and Regions (French)

Constitutional distribution of powers

• Fact sheets on the distribution of Powers: Federal, Communities, Regions. (French)
  
• Constitution of Belgium, in particular:
  • Federal Legislation, Competencies (Articles 74 and 77)
  • Communities : Responsibilities (Articles 127 to 130)
  • Regions : Responsibilities (Articles 39 and 134)
  (Source: Law Faculty, University of Wurzburg, Germany)

Legislative institutions

• Federal: Bicameral Parliament composed of a Senate and a Chamber of Representatives. The Senate represents the Communities.
  • Official Website of the Senate, in particular: Composition, role (French)
  • Official Website of the Chamber of Representatives (French)
• Communities and Regions: One legislature (Conseil) for each Community and each Region, except only one assembly (Conseil flamand) for both the Flemish Community and the Flemish Region.
  • Official Websites of the legislatures (Conseils) of Communities and Regions

Official languages

• French, Dutch and German are official languages at the Federal level. Communities/Regions have one of these languages as their official language.

Other links of interest:

• Relations between the Federal Parliament and the Communities and Regions legislatures (Conseils) (French)
• Historical overview of "federalization" (French)
• All about Belgium
• Federations magazine (Forum of Federations), notably;
• The Practitioner's page: Nicolas Lagasse of Belgium, Vol. 2, No. 2 / February 2002 (PDF)