Brussels

The territory of the Brussels Region is that of the Brussels-Capital bilingual area.

Some facts about Brussels:

• Population: 1,048,491
• Number of Communes: 19
• Brussels is the smallest of the Belgian Regions.
• Francophones and Flemings live in Brussels-Capital; whereby the Francophones are in the majority. Both language groups claim Brussels as “their” capital city and have established important institutions there.
• as capital of Belgium and the EU, as well as Nato HQ, Brussels carries important status at the national and international levels. As a result of this, a special solution had to be found for Brussels within a federalised Belgium, one which would be appropriate to its particular functions as well as palatable to both Francophones and Flemings
• In Brussels, both the French and Flemish Communities are responsible for the exercise of Communitary powers; to this end certain complex, ad hoc structures, particularly tailored to the needs of Brussels have been created.

Plenar hall of the Parliament of de Brussels Capital Region

The Brussels-Capital Region

The Brussels-Capital Region has its own directly elected Regional Parliament with 72 Francophone and 17 Dutch-speaking MPs.

The Regional Parliament: Decisions reached by the Brussels Regional Parliament differ from the decrees of the other regions and the Communities: in legal terms they are not fully binding, but must first be examined by administrative courts for their constitutionality and coherence within the special status laws for Brussels.

Further to this, the Federal Government holds a limited right of control in such decrees with regard to the role of Brussels as the nation’s capital and the security of its international status.

The Regional Government consists of five Ministers: two Francophone Ministers, two Flemish Ministers, a Prime Minister (de facto Francophone) and three Secretaries of State (of which one is Dutch-speaking).

Communitary affairs in Brussels

Communitary affairs are not territorial, like regional affairs, but person-related. However, the territorial principle also applies in Belgium. For Brussels this means that citizens may not be officially categorized as belonging to the one or other language group – and therefore cannot either be attributed to the one or other community.

Thus a special institutional solution needed to be found for the complex of communitary matters in Brussels:

The French Community Commission:for the Francophone institutions in Brussels, this body exercises legal powers in the context of decrees passed by the French Community: Francophone schools, radio stations, libraries, health-care facilities etc. The French Community Commission consists of the 72 Francophone members of the Brussels Region Council.

The French Community Commission exercises legislative power within those areas of competence that, in Wallonia, have been transferred from the French Community to the Wallonian Region.

These decisions are then implemented by the French Community Council (the Francophone members of the Brussels Regional Council).

The Flemish Community Commission:for the Flemish institutions in Brussels, this body exercises legal powers in the context of decrees passed by the Flemish Community: Dutch language schools, radio stations, libraries, health-care facilities etc. The Flemish Community Commission consists of the 17 directly elected Dutch-speaking members of the Brussels Regional Parliament.

These decisions are then implemented by the Flemish Community Council (the Dutch-speaking members of the Brussels Regional Parliament).

The Joint Community Commissionconsists of the delegates from both language groups of the Brussels Capital Region, the Members of the Brussels Regional Parliament. The Joint Community Commission exercises control over those facilities that do not explicitly belong to either of the Communities (e.g. social welfare services, city hospitals). It also regulates matters that are strictly person-related, such as domestic nursing, care of the disabled, prophylactic medicine etc., rather than those relating to facilities.

Executive power lies in the hands of the Joint Council, which consists of the members of the Brussels Regional Government (excluding Secretaries of State).

Special protective measures in Brussels

Particular protective measures have been enacted in Brussels to ensure that neither the members of the Flemish nor French language group are disadvantaged in any way. Some examples:

• Decisions of the Joint Community Commission must be made with a majority of members from each of the two language groups.
• in the Regional parliament, the system uses the so-called “alarm-bell”. If two thirds of a language faction is of the opinion that a parliamentary decree is disadvantageous for their language group, then conciliatory talks must be held.