Showing posts with label wallonia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wallonia. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

What is Wallonia? Belgium's Unusual Federal System

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Map of Belgium's three official administrative regions: the Flemish Region (Flanders), the Walloon Region (Wallonia), and the Brussels-Capital Region
Map of Belgium's three official Language Communities: the Flemish Community, the Walloon Community, and the German-speaking Community
Maps by Evan Centanni, from base map by Vascer
(CC BY-SA)
By Bryn Jansson
 

Wallonia vs. the European Union

Belgium often seems like an afterthought in European politics. It doesn’t have the economic clout of a Germany, the political influence of a France, or the military power of a Britain. It’s a small country tucked into the northwest corner of Europe, and known mostly for its chocolate and beer (though the acclaim both have earned is well-deserved). It’s home to the European Union headquarters in Brussels, but otherwise holds no special political power in the for-now 28-nation bloc.

Yet there it was this October, caught in the middle of a European political drama, the lone holdout of the EU-28 against the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), a large scale free-trade deal with Canada. Even more amazingly, it wasn’t even the whole of Belgium blocking the trade deal, but only the sub-region of Wallonia, home to 32 percent of Belgians (known as “Walloons”) and less than 1 percent of EU citizens.