French Community of Belgium

Submitted by editor on Fri, 08/05/2011 - 22:50

French Community of Belgium

French Community
Communauté française
—  Community of Belgium  —

Flag
Country Belgium
Established 1993
Capital Brussels
Government
 - Minister-President Rudy Demotte
Celebration Day 27th September
Language French
Website cfwb.be
The Walloon flag was chosen as flag of the French Community of Belgium in 1975. It was adopted by the Walloon Region in 1998.

The French Community of Belgium (French: Communauté française de Belgique, Dutch: Franse Gemeenschap van België, German: Französische Gemeinschaft Belgiens) is one of the three official communities in Belgium along with the Flemish Community and the German speaking Community. Although its name could suggest that it is a community of French citizens in Belgium, it is not. The French Community of Belgium is not a group of people or inhabitants, but an official institution which refers to French-speaking Belgian citizens. As such, it is sometimes called the French-speaking Community of Belgium. The French Community of Belgium has its own parliament, government, and administration. Its official flag is also the official flag of Wallonia where 80% of its citizens live. Its capital is the City of Brussels.

Contents

Alternative names

The names Communauté Wallonie-Bruxelles and Communauté française Wallonie-Bruxelles (or simply Wallonie-Bruxelles) are generally used to refer to institutions of the French Community of Belgiumor more broadly to institutions which are common to the French Community of Belgium, the Walloon Region and the Commission communautaire française (COCOF, a French-speaking institution of the Brussels-Capital Region) [2]. These two names are not mentioned in the Belgian constitution, and only in a few official legal texts, such as the "Arrêté du Gouvernement de la Communauté française fixant le code de qualité et de l'accueil" of 17 December 2003, mentioning the name "Communauté Wallonie-Bruxelles", and the "Arrêté du Gouvernement de la Communauté française approuvant le programme quinquennal de promotion de la santé 2004-2008 of 30 April 2004, mentioning the name "Communauté française Wallonie-Bruxelles".

Some people may mistakenly interpret these names to refer to the common institutions of the Walloon Region, the Brussels-Capital Region and the COCOF, whereas they in fact only refer to the institution of the "French Community of Belgium".

In April 2011, the French-speaking newspaper La Libre Belgique announced that the official name would be 'Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles' (Wallonia-Brussels Federation), thus removing the ambiguity caused by the original name.

Comparison with "Flanders"

A confusion sometimes arises from the term 'Flanders' which can refer to two different political institutions and concepts, being the Flemish Region and the Flemish Community. 'Flanders', though not named in the Belgian constitution either, is more widely used in official publications, because the region has passed its constitutional competencies towards the community – whereas the Walloon Region and the French Community of Belgium remain separate.

List of Ministers-President of the French Community

Philippe Moureaux (1st time) 22 December 1981 - 9 December 1985 PS
Philippe Monfils 9 December 1985 - 2 February 1988 PRL
Philippe Moureaux (2nd time) 2 February - 9 May 1988 PS
Valmy Féaux 17 May 1988 - 7 January 1992 PS
Bernard Anselme 7 January 1992 - 4 May 1993 PS
Laurette Onkelinx 4 May 1993 - 13 July 1999 PS
Hervé Hasquin 13 July 1999 - 19 July 2004 PRL
Marie Arena 19 July 2004 - 20 March 2008 PS
Rudi Demotte 20 March 2008 - incumbent PS

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Le Drapeau - Communauté française de Belgique
  2. ^ Décret déterminant le jour de fête et les emblèmes propres à la Communauté française de Belgique (D. 03-07-1991, M.B. 15-11-1991)
  3. ^ See for instance [1]
  4. ^ http://www.lalibre.be/actu/belgique/article/652826/ne-dites-plus-communaute-francaise-mais-federation-wallonie-bruxelles.html
All text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. (See Terms of Use for details.)