Belgium Law & Government
Belgium gained its independence in 1830. In recent years, the country has rapidly evolved, via four
sets of institutional reforms (in 1970, 1980, 1988-89 and 1993) into an efficient federal structure.
So it is that today, for the first time, the first article of the Belgian Constitution states: "Belgium is a
Federal State which consists of communities and regions".
The decision-making power in Belgium is no longer exclusively in the hands of the Federal
Government and the Federal Parliament. Now, the management of the country falls to several
partners, which exercise their competences independently in different fields.
The redistribution followed two broad lines. The first concerns linguistics and, more broadly,
everything relating to culture. It gave rise to the Communities, a concept which refers to the persons
which make them up and to the bound which unites them, in this case language and culture. Belgium
is situated at the junction between the Latin and Germanic languages: Dutch, French and German.
Thus Belgium has three Communities today, based on language: the Flemish Community, the French
Community and the German-speaking Community. These correspond to population groups.
The second main line of the State reform is historically inspired by economic concerns, expressed
by Regions who wanted to have more autonomous power. This gave rise to the founding of three
regions: the Flemish Region, the Brussels Capital Region and the Walloon Region. To some extent
Belgian regions are similar to the American States or the German "Länder". The country is further
divided into nine provinces (10 as of 1 January 1995) and 589 communes.
The federal State retains important areas of competence including: foreign affairs, defense, justice,
finances, social security, important sectors of public health and domestic affairs, etc. The Regions
and Communities are entitled to run foreign relations themselves in those areas where they have
competence.
Reconciling regional and cultural identity and federal structure is not an easy task, but it does have
the advantage of bringing the decision-making process closer to the people. The result is a more
sharply defined political structure and greater emphasis on the quality of life.
The Federal Government
Prime Minister (see also his speeches)
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Economy and Telecommunications
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Home Department
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Foreign Trade
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Budget
Minister for Scientific Research Policy
Minister for Health and Pensions
Minister for Foreign Affairs
Minister for Labour and Employment
Minister for Social Affairs
Minister of Agriculture and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
Minister of Transport
Minister of Justice
Minister for Civil Service
Minister for Defence
State Secretary for Development Cooperation
State Secretary for Security and for Social Integration and Environment
Belgium