The constitutional language areas determine the official languages in their municipalities, as well as the geographical limits of the empowered institutions for specific matters. The overlapping boundaries of the Regions and Communities have created two notable peculiarities: the territory of the Brussels-Capital Region which came into existence nearly a decade after the other regions is included in both the Flemish and French Communities, and the territory of the German-speaking Community lies wholly within the Walloon Region.
Conflicts about jurisdiction between the bodies are resolved by the Constitutional Court of Belgium. The structure is intended as a compromise to allow different cultures to live together peacefully. The Federal State's authority includes justice, defense, federal police, social security, nuclear energy, monetary policy and public debt, and other aspects of public finances. It controls substantial parts of public health, home affairs and foreign affairs.
Communities exercise their authority only within linguistically determined geographical boundaries, originally oriented towards the individuals of a Community's language: culture including audiovisual media , education and the use of the relevant language. Extensions to personal matters less directly connected with language comprise health policy curative and preventive medicine and assistance to individuals protection of youth, social welfare, aid to families, immigrant assistance services, and so on.
Regions have authority in fields that can be broadly associated with their territory.
These include economy, employment, agriculture, water policy, housing, public works, energy, transport, the environment, town and country planning, nature conservation, credit and foreign trade. They supervise the provinces, municipalities and intercommunal utility companies. In several fields, the different levels each have their own say on specifics. With education, for instance, the autonomy of the Communities neither includes decisions about the compulsory aspect nor allows for setting minimum requirements for awarding qualifications, which remain federal matters.
The treaty-making power of the Regions' and Communities' Governments is the broadest of all the Federating units of all the Federations all over the world. Because of its location at the crossroads of Western Europe , Belgium has historically been the route of invading armies from its larger neighbors. With virtually defenseless borders, Belgium has traditionally sought to avoid domination by the more powerful nations which surround it through a policy of mediation. The Belgians have been strong advocates of European integration.
The Belgian Armed Forces have about 47, active troops. The operational commands of the four components are subordinate to the Staff Department for Operations and Training of the Ministry of Defense , which is headed by the Assistant Chief of Staff Operations and Training , and to the Chief of Defense. The effects of the Second World War made collective security a priority for Belgian foreign policy. This mission was the first in a long line of UN missions which the Belgians supported. Belgium's strongly globalized economy [94] and its transport infrastructure are integrated with the rest of Europe.
Its location at the heart of a highly industrialized region helped make it the world's 15th largest trading nation in Its main exports are machinery and equipment, chemicals, finished diamonds, metals and metal products, and foodstuffs.
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The Belgian economy is heavily service-oriented and shows a dual nature: a dynamic Flemish economy and a Walloon economy that lags behind. Since , through the Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union , Belgium and Luxembourg have been a single trade market with customs and currency union. Belgium was the first continental European country to undergo the Industrial Revolution , in the early 19th century. The and oil crises sent the economy into a recession; it was particularly prolonged in Wallonia, where the steel industry had become less competitive and experienced a serious decline.
As of [update] , the budget was balanced and public debt was equal to Unemployment rates of 8. By October , this had grown to 8. Belgium switched to the euro in , with the first sets of euro coins being minted in From a biological resource perspective, Belgium has a low endowment: Belgium's biocapacity adds up to only 0. This means they required about eight times as much biocapacity as Belgium contains. As a result, Belgium was running a biocapacity deficit of 5.
Belgium experiences some of the most congested traffic in Europe. In , commuters to the cities of Brussels and Antwerp spent respectively 65 and 64 hours a year in traffic jams. There is a large economic gap between Flanders and Wallonia. Wallonia was historically wealthy compared to Flanders, mostly due to its heavy industries , but the decline of the steel industry post-World War II led to the region's rapid decline, whereas Flanders rose swiftly. Since then, Flanders has been prosperous, among the wealthiest regions in Europe, whereas Wallonia has been languishing. As of , the unemployment rate of Wallonia is over double that of Flanders.
The divide has played a key part in the tensions between the Flemish and Walloons in addition to the already-existing language divide. Pro-independence movements have gained high popularity in Flanders as a consequence.
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Contributions to the development of science and technology have appeared throughout the country's history. The 16th century Early Modern flourishing of Western Europe included cartographer Gerardus Mercator , anatomist Andreas Vesalius , herbalist Rembert Dodoens [] [] [] [] and mathematician Simon Stevin among the most influential scientists. Bakelite was developed in — by Leo Baekeland.
In , he started a series of conferences, the Solvay Conferences on Physics and Chemistry, which have had a deep impact on the evolution of quantum physics and chemistry. As of 1 January , the total population of Belgium according to its population register was 11,, The most densely populated province is Antwerp , the least densely populated province is Luxembourg. As of January , the Flemish Region had a population of 6,, Wallonia had a population of 3,, The Brussels Capital Region has 1,, inhabitants In the average total fertility rate TFR across Belgium was 1.
The prevalent foreign nationals were Italian , , French , , Dutch , , Moroccan 80, , Portuguese 43, , Spanish 42, , Turkish 39, and German 37, Of these, , 6. Since the modification of the Belgian nationality law in more than 1. The largest group of immigrants and their descendants in Belgium are Moroccans.
Belgium has three official languages: Dutch, French and German. A number of non-official minority languages are spoken as well. French-speaking Belgians are often referred to as Walloons, although the French speakers in Brussels are not Walloons. The total number of native Dutch speakers is estimated to be about 6. Roughly 23, more German speakers live in municipalities near the official Community. Both Belgian Dutch and Belgian French have minor differences in vocabulary and semantic nuances from the varieties spoken respectively in the Netherlands and France.
Many Flemish people still speak dialects of Dutch in their local environment. Walloon , considered either as a dialect of French or a distinct Romance language , [] [] is now only understood and spoken occasionally, mostly by elderly people. Walloon is divided into four dialects, which along with those of Picard , [] are rarely used in public life and have largely been replaced by French. Since the country's independence, Roman Catholicism has had an important role in Belgium's politics.
Roman Catholicism has traditionally been Belgium's majority religion; being especially strong in Flanders. According to the Eurobarometer , Protestants comprised 2. Non-religious people comprised A further 5. Symbolically and materially, the Roman Catholic Church remains in a favorable position. In the early s, there were approximately 42, Jews in Belgium. The Jewish Community of Antwerp numbering some 18, is one of the largest in Europe, and one of the last places in the world where Yiddish is the primary language of a large Jewish community mirroring certain Orthodox and Hasidic communities in New York, New Jersey, and Israel.
In addition, most Jewish children in Antwerp receive a Jewish education. This is particularly the case in eastern Wallonia and areas along the French border. Muslims constitute The largest group of immigrants in Belgium are Moroccans, with , people.
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The Turks are the third largest group, and the second largest Muslim ethnic group, numbering , The Belgians enjoy good health. According to estimates, the average life expectancy is Death in Belgium is mainly due to heart and vascular disorders, neoplasms , disorders of the respiratory system and unnatural causes of death accidents, suicide. Non-natural causes of death and cancer are the most common causes of death for females up to age 24 and males up to age Healthcare in Belgium is financed through both social security contributions and taxation.
Health insurance is compulsory. Health care is delivered by a mixed public and private system of independent medical practitioners and public, university and semi-private hospitals. Health care service are payable by the patient and reimbursed later by health insurance institutions, but for ineligible categories of patients and services so-called 3rd party payment systems exist.
For the first time in Belgian history, the first child was euthanized following the 2-year mark of the removal of the euthanization age restrictions. The child had been euthanized due to an incurable disease that was inflicted upon the child. Although there may have been some support for the euthanization there is a possibility of controversy due to the issue revolving around the subject of assisted suicide. Education is compulsory from 6 to 18 years of age for Belgians.
Mirroring the dual structure of the 19th-century Belgian political landscape, characterized by the Liberal and the Catholic parties , the educational system is segregated within a secular and a religious segment. The secular branch of schooling is controlled by the communities, the provinces, or the municipalities, while religious, mainly Catholic branch education, is organized by religious authorities, although subsidized and supervised by the communities.
Despite its political and linguistic divisions , the region corresponding to today's Belgium has seen the flourishing of major artistic movements that have had tremendous influence on European art and culture. Nowadays, to a certain extent, cultural life is concentrated within each language Community, and a variety of barriers have made a shared cultural sphere less pronounced. Contributions to painting and architecture have been especially rich. The Mosan art , the Early Netherlandish , [] the Flemish Renaissance and Baroque painting [] and major examples of Romanesque , Gothic , Renaissance and Baroque architecture [] are milestones in the history of art.
While the 15th century's art in the Low Countries is dominated by the religious paintings of Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden , the 16th century is characterized by a broader panel of styles such as Peter Breughel 's landscape paintings and Lambert Lombard 's representation of the antique. The avant-garde CoBrA movement appeared in the s, while the sculptor Panamarenko remains a remarkable figure in contemporary art.
Belgian contributions to architecture also continued into the 19th and 20th centuries, including the work of Victor Horta and Henry van de Velde , who were major initiators of the Art Nouveau style. The vocal music of the Franco-Flemish School developed in the southern part of the Low Countries and was an important contribution to Renaissance culture.
Contemporary popular music in Belgium is also of repute. Jazz musician Toots Thielemans and singer Jacques Brel have achieved global fame. Nowadays, singer Stromae has been a musical revelation in Europe and beyond, having great success. In the heavy metal scene, bands like Machiavel , Channel Zero and Enthroned have a worldwide fan-base. The poet and playwright Maurice Maeterlinck won the Nobel Prize in literature in Jacobs and Willy Vandersteen brought the Belgian cartoon strip industry a worldwide fame.
Belgian cinema has brought a number of mainly Flemish novels to life on-screen. Folklore plays a major role in Belgium's cultural life: the country has a comparatively high number of processions, cavalcades, parades, ' ommegangs ' and 'ducasses', [H] ' kermesse ' and other local festivals, nearly always with an originally religious or mythological background. Originated in and revived in the s, the Gentse Feesten have become a modern tradition. Many highly ranked Belgian restaurants can be found in the most influential restaurant guides, such as the Michelin Guide.
Contrary to their name, french fries are claimed to have originated in Belgium, although their exact place of origin is uncertain. The national dishes are " steak and fries with salad", and " mussels with fries ".