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Brussels ( French: Bruxelles, Dutch: Brussel, German: Brüssel) is a major city in Belgium and its capital.
Brussels is first of all a city located in the middle of Belgium and its capital, but it sometimes also refers to the main municipality of the Brussels-Capital Region. This municipality inside Brussels is correctly named The City of Brussels (Bruxelles-Ville or Ville de Bruxelles in French, de Stad Brussel in Dutch), which is one of 19 municipalities that make up the Brussels-Capital Region. On January 1st, 2004 the municipality had a total population of 141,312 (70,405 males and 70,907 females). The total area is 32.61 km² which gives a population density of 4,333.94 inhabitants per km².
See also: Municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region.
The Brussels-Capital Region is a region of Belgium in its own right, alongside the Flemish Region and Wallonia. Geographically, it is an enclave of the Flemish Region. Regions are one component of Belgium's complex institutions, the three communities being 'the' other component: the Brussels people must deal with the either to the French (speaking) community or the Flemish Community for matters such as culture and education.
Brussels is also the capital of the French Community of BelgiumThe French Community of Belgium ( French: Communaute francaise de Belgique 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 Fr (Communauté française Wallonie-Bruxelles in French) and of FlandersThis article is about a region of Western Europe and of Belgium. For other meanings, see Flanders (disambiguation). Today, Flanders ( Dutch: Vlaanderen French: Flandre or Flandres is a region in Western Europe, in Belgium and a nation, the 'community of t; all Flemish capital institutions are established there: Flemish ParliamentThe Flemish Parliament ( Dutch: Vlaams Parlement and formerly called Flemish Council or Vlaamse Raad constitutes the legislative power in Flanders, for matters which fall within the competence of Flanders, both as a geographic region and a cultural commun, Flemish governement and its administration.Two of the three main institutions of the European UnionFor other uses, see EU (disambiguation). The European Union or EU is a supranational organisation of 25 European states. It was established with that name by the Treaty on European Union (commonly known as the Maastricht Treaty) in 1992 but many aspects o, the European CommissionThe European Commission (formally the Commission of the European Communities is the executive of the European Union. Its primary roles are to propose and enact legislation, and to act as 'guardian of the treaties' which provide the legal basis for the EU. and the Council of the European UnionThe Council of the European Union forms, along with the European Parliament, the legislative arm of the European Union (EU). It contains ministers of the governments of each of the member-states of the EU. The Council of the European Union is sometimes re, have their headquarters in the Berlaymont building in Brussels. The third main institution of the European Union, the European Parliament, also has parliamentary chambers in Brussels (its plenary sessions are held at its headquarters in Strasbourg). This leads to another meaning, especially in British English, where the city is used as a metonym for some aspects of the Union. "Brussels is considering banning raunchy TV images"
Brussels is also the political seat of NATO, i.e. the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, and the Western European Union (WEU).
The language frontier divides Belgium into a northern, Dutch-speaking, region and a southern, French-speaking, region. The Brussels region is officially bilingual, while the majority of its residents speaks French (see the linguistic history of Brussels in this article's history section).