THE GOVERNMENT

GOVERNMENT TYPE
Parliamentary democracry under a constitutional monarch

BRANCHES
Executive: HM. the King and his Ministers
Legislative: Bicameral Parliament

House of Representatives: 150 members
Senate: 70 (+2) members

Judiciary: Courts and tribunals

SUBDIVISION

1 FEDERAL STATE
Responsible for national defence, foreign policy, overseas aid, justice, law and order, currency, taxation and monetary policy, constitutional revision, economic and monetary union, social security, pensions, public health (shared), employment (shared), communications (shared) and immigration.

3 COMMUNITIES
(Flemish, French and German-speaking) deal with cultural matters, education, use of languages and "person-related matters", such as health policy, policy of the disabled and protection of youth.

3 REGIONS
(Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels) have authority over socio-economic matters such as environment, including housing and town, urban and country planning,  economic development, including employment (shared), energy, agriculture, public works and transport as well as the administrative supervision of the provincial and communal councils.

10 PROVINCES
(Antwerp, Flemish Brabant, Walloon Brabant, East-Flanders, Hainaut, Liège, Limburg, Luxembourg, Namur, West-Flanders)

589 COMMUNES

MEMBERSHIP IN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union (BLEU), Belgium- Netherlands-Luxembourg Economic Union (Benelux), Council of Europe, European Union, Intelsat, NATO, OECD, UN and all of its specialized agencies (including FAO, GATT, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, IDA, IFAD, IFC, ILO, IMF, IMO, ITU, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WHO, WMO), WEU

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