Belgium in the EU 

Belgian here. Your video was very well researched other than the fact we have six parliaments, not seven (the Flemish Community and Regional Parliament have been combined into the Flemish Parliament). I might add as well that the divide between the Flemish and the Walloon region has to do with politics. During the last decades, the north has been increasingly leaning to the right, and the south has been increasingly leaning to the left. This has made it very difficult to form federal governments, as the federal government has to consist of both Flemish and Wallonian parties.

First thing he mentions is a chocolate. Obviously most important Belgian thing. Now that is out of the way, we can focus on other less important stuff.

Belgium is the region traditionally used by Germany and France to settle disputes. Nowadays they do so by democratic means.

Save the small mistakes pointed out in other comments, you really did right by Belgium with this video! A lot more wholesome than most other Belgium explained videos.

I'm a belgian and I have to say the information you provided was spot on! I'd also like to add that in spite of the high tax rate I'm very happy to live here. It's good to be a belgian!

I was born in 1963 in Flanders. Around that time and till the seventies there were brutal fascist dictators in Portugal, Spain and Greece. The east was a communist bulwark and equally brutal. Northern Ireland was in a state of civil war and I can remember the Northern Irish children that came over to Belgium in the summer to find some weeks of peace here. There were borders everywhere (except in the Benelux and in Scandinavia), and no freedom of movement as we know it now over more than 4.3 million square km. The European Union is primarily founded on the values of peace, respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities... a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between men and women prevail. I am very proud to be part of that project. Greetings from Belgium, EU.

Thanks for making this video about our rather small but important country. 🇧🇪🇧🇪🇧🇪 Dankuwel Merci bien Danke schön

With the EU elections barely 7 months away, we need a video explaining the stances on various issues of the 7 groupings, I think.

Also, if you go a little bit further in history, this is where the epicenter of the Frankish realm was found. Even if Paris and Aachen eventually became more important cities of Frankish culture, the roots were always heavily involved.

Its kinda simplistic to refer to the independence of 1830. We were only part of the Netherlands for 15 years, since Napoleon. There has been a deep cultural divide for a long time. Flanders was part of the Roman empire, part of the Burgundian Empire, an independent state under France, part of the Spanish Empire which all drove a cultural split. Brabant was part of the HRE even. If you want to go there you need to look at the provinces which explains a better story. Today Flanders is actually only half of original "Graafmanschap" Flanders and has big portions of Brabant and Limburg added to them. The most southern portion of Wallonia is the French part of Luxembourg, which decided to be part of Belgium instead. Belgium had the same number of divisions on the French and German borders respectively. Outlining the distrust towards the French. Belgium also linked the montary systems very early with LUX. Later formed the BENELUX with showed the West how to make the EU shortly after.

I am half Belgian (half Fleming and half Italian) and I confirm that the country is still divided, my grandfather hated French speakers and of course he doubly hated Italians who he considered like rats, this is the reason why he no longer wanted to see my mother after she got pregnant by my father and in fact I never met him in person. I think this is very sad.

As Belgian, it is impossible to explain our complex situation. This video clears a lot of air. Thanks for the making of, more than well done!

A a Dutchman I can tell you that Belgium will remain Belgium.

I think this is one of the best depictions of my country that I have seen on this platform, the only thing you forgot is our obsession with fries.

🇪🇺 Speaking as A Brit Belgium is Such a Unique Country and watching this Video has made me more savvy as a result. 🇬🇧🤝🇧🇪

I was born in Brussel and lived in Brussel all my life, went to school in the 3 regions. I'm pro europe and think belgium should always stay in 1 country. Love the diversity in my town. You can just go to a bar and meet people from all over the world

Hey man, also belgian here. Great video man, you've got our history better than my historyteacher when i was like 13ys old (26 now)

Apart of some mistakes in your explanation (we have 6 parliaments, not 7 as the Dutch-speaking Communal parliament and the Flemish Regional parliament merged. And the fact that Walloon-Brabant wasn't included on the map as part of the French-speaking community) you actually gave a very good explanation about how our country works. Personally, I'm quite pro-European, but not to the extreme. I used to be in favour of a European federation, but considering the fact that Belgium itself is barely able to manage 3 languages, how can one expect to form a federation that has so many more languages? But yeah, I like the EU, it should defo stay and its responsibilities should be further expanded.

This is an EXCELLENT presentation about Belgium. Glad you mentioned the EGC (coal and steel); wished you had also mentioned the BeNeLux. (I am from Belgium)

this was an amazing video as a belgain myself i can tell you that your infirmation is right. I am a proud belgain

"Belgium is a beautiful city" Donald Trump

A Belgian here, a well-researched video and very good pronunciations of the Belgian parties and names.

Best video in this series so far. 👍

Great video and a really fantastic series! :)

As a Belgian im verry happy that i see more content about my country :D

As a Belgian living in Brussels and having a lot of family members that worked/work in EU institutions I am very much pro EU and pro Belgian unity eventhough I am dutch-speaking.

Starting Belgium with the netherlands is kind of late. It was only part of the Netherlands for 15 years, Especially Flanders was not an unimportant region. It also was a key member of the Benelux union who were the first to open their borders. What we are not though, is resilient. Belgium has been ruled over by many empires, but history taught us pretty well that defending yourself usually is not the best option. The Great War is a significantly bigger trauma than the second and aside from some very quick revolts, the last time we really defended our sovereignty was in 57 BC against Caesar. However, our culture hasn't been changed by any of our rulers, and that's why we constantly have tiny revolts or change owners.

Surprised to see this video pop up ..didn't know anyone ws interested in our little country ..you painted a rather accurate image ,and as a Belgian living in Flanders we are fortunate to live here . In these unsure economic times, we can count on several security systems in case of health issues, jobloss, education and trainings to change job, etc. Many belgians are house owners ,as it is said over here we are born with a brick in our stomach 😀..so considering all and in spite of much political arguing ,it is not bad to be a Belgian! 🙂😊❤

Finally a outsider that made the proper research about inside affair of Belgium!

Romania is also part of that Latin region, together with Moldova…

I'm Belgian, Flemish parents, born in the German region, French schooling. Everything you said is right, BUT, the division is mostly politics, the population have mostly no problem to communicate. In the history of Belgium I always miss a part: in 1921 the collaboration between Belgium and Luxembourg, and 1944 the creation of BENELUX, the union of Belgium- Netherlands and Luxembourg. So you see, Europe started before 1957; btw BENELUX still exist. So Belgium- Luxembourg are the start for Europe.

Im learning more about my own country from this guy then our own history books.

good video, much interesting information

Eendracht maakt macht ! L'union fait la force ! Wallons et Flamands sont des frères. Lang leve België ! 🇧🇪

belgium here i love that i am a belgium its very nice here. heb een leuke dag

Very good accurate overview of Belgium! Congratulations you studied very well your subject. SUBSCRIBED !

As someone studying political science in Ghent, your video is (besides a few mistakes here and there) pretty accurate. Thank you for explaining our politics with care.

lovely video, hello from Belgium!

quite hard to summarize Belgium, but you did a very good job.

Hello I’m Belgium 🇧🇪 what I would like to see more in your videos is maybe some buetiful places ,food ….. ❤😊

Good video.

Perfect

As a Belgian I can say you have explained really well. Even on our notorious difficult political system.

I really love this Serie of "country in the EU" 🍿

I'm a Belgian, and I gotta say, this is the most informationally correct short and detailed video of Belgium I've ever seen. - Chocolate: Check, all I need to see xP

Fun fact! There once was a king who disagreed on a law, so we just dethroned him signed the law and give hik his power back. Thank you for listening.

The best video for now in my opinion. Next to be about Bulgaria 🇧🇬.

This is a pretty good description of the situation

Hellooo, good video

Waiting for helping you with the Bulgaria episode!

100% Belgian here. Good video, and you highlight some good things and some problems well. However; just like the EU, Belgium suffers from lack of political vision. We need a roadmap, Belgian & european on the following topics: 1. Militairy, because of Ukraïne. On the Nation and EU level. We're almost at war, and if we can't support Ukraïne, we very soon will be at war. And this has to be topic nr1. 2. Energy & climate. Belgium dropped the ball a couple times here regarding promises made, then broken by politicians... And let's be honest; we need more nuclear. 3. Immigration. Diversity is a strength, untill the divide becomes too big and it turns into a weakness. We need the demografics, but we also cannot afford faillures like Sweden ... a good plan, and a roadmap on integration would help; also for uniting countries, because this is a very divisive topic.

Please make a video about the single market. Especially about services single market which actually hasnt been ratified by most countries.

How could it be an actual accurate depiction of belgian history and culture on the internet never tought i'd see the day

I'm from the South of the Netherlands. We share a vast linguistical, political and cultural heritage with was is now referred to as the Flanders region. In fact, we're more closely related to Belgium than to the rest of the Netherlands. Within the Netherlands we Southerners are often referred to as semi-Belgians, but we're actually proud of that instead of being offended. 😁 The Dutch province of North Brabant (where I'm from), together with the Belgian provinces of Antwerp, both Flemish and Walloon Brabant as well as the Brussels Capital Area once formed the mighty Duchy of Brabant which also played a key role in the birth of Belgium. The Belgian coat of arns and its tricolour derive directly from the Brabantian coat of arms and the Belgian national anthem is called the Brabançonne or Brabant Song. Great video, by the way! 🙂

as a certificed Belgium citizin i can sat that the most important thing about Belgium is that is belgium fries and not french fries.

Repeated polling has shown that there is no popular support for independence, often being somewhere inbetween 15-30% of Flemish people being in favor. A large polling after last election found that only 16% of flemish voters want independence, only 25% of N-VA voters are in favour of independence and 33% of VB. This is perfectly logical, since these parties have grown their voterbase a lot in the last 10-15years, and it is very unlikely independence sentiment also increased that fast. Rather many people also vote on these parties for other reasons (immigration, economy, protest vote, ...)

Hope you make all countries off Europe “in the EU”

The dichotomy between Flanders and Wallonia is not as described. During the federalization of Belgium the regions were created because Wallonia wanted to have greater economic independence. The communities, however, were mainly a request from Flanders. Eventually the main area of power shifted in the country during the 70s, 80s and 90s from Brussels (which was not in favor of federalism, but did not oppose it) towards the new power structures in the country. The main push from many of the Wallonian politicians now is “federalism with 4 states”. This would mean the end of the regions and communities and just make 4 states with them having the power of both the regions and communities. These four states would be Flanders, Wallonia, Brussels and East Belgium (the German speaking minority of around 75.000 people). Some have argued that the Flanders should just leave Brussels and give up on it in order to achieve more or total independence, but this is extremely unpopular within much of Flanders let alone within the Flemish communities of Brussels. While Brussels does just constitute 5% of the seats in the Flemish parliament, Brussels is its capital and seat of government. I also don’t think many are willing to see the capital move to Antwerp. The 4 state federalism (mainly in originating from the Francophone left) is also heavily opposed by Flemish politicians, because they fear that this solution will lead to there being 2 French speaking states and just one Flemish one. It is true, however, that Flanders generally wants more economic independence and political competences. The question only is how? For instance, a teacher is payed by the community government but that government is not responsible for their pensions. Pensions are dealt with at the federal level. Hence why the monkey of regional and community governments just look at their own spending and make sure that a lot of the burden is sent to the federal one. Is it enough for Flanders to achieve those competences within a federal structure or is it still afraid that it will be responsible for much of the economic weight of the country at large? Are the current political divides so deep? The complexity of Flanders in turn is also why (at this moment) a majority of Flemish parties outright reject Flemish independence (Vlaams Belang not included, and the N-VA being split about it), since no one knows what would happen to Brussels. Wallonia and Brussels in turn are afraid what would happen with their economic structure if Flanders breaks even more or totally with them. With the upcoming elections, the debate surrounding the structure of the state will be heated once more. And no clear cut solution for Belgium structural government problems appears on the horizon.

Not a lot of Belgians even know this nowadays but back in 1790, we already did a first revolution against Austrians and declared the Republic of the United-States of Belgium, before France even did. It was crushed within a year due to internal divisions by the Austrians and then invaded by Revolutionnary France when we were asking for their support for months against Austria.

this could be better, but considering all other vidoes made on Belgium, this video blows the others out of the water Thanks for making this

Merci, dank u , vielen dank. Thank you.

Verry good and nice video, little edits I would suggest is that "The King" has no power at all, if he veto's or poses objection on anything, he gets temporarily dethroned for 1 day, they pass the law and then reinstate the King, basically the king is purely there for the "Monarchy show" so we can stay a monarchy and not be a Republic or anything else. Also as someone mentioned before we have 6 parliaments and not 7. Also fun fact is we are the only country holding not once but twice the record for the longest period of having no acting functional government. We broke our own first record. 2010 -> 541 days // 2018 -> 592 days, inter-party tensions are the cause of these as it often is sadly.

Very, very long government forming negotiations is Belgium's trademark

As a belgian I say thank you for the information that you provide because I could not understand my own "government" system

eines der bisher besten, vollständigstesn un korrektesten Erklärungsvideos zum politischen Aufbau Belgiens. Nur bei den Zuständigkeiten zwischen Gemeinschaften und Regionen ist es nicht mehr ganz so einfach. Die Deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft hat einige Zuständgekiten von der Wallonischen Region übernommen und somit mehr Zuständigkeiten in ihrem Bereich als andere Gemeinchaften

One of the best videos about Belgium and our complex politics. Two mistakes : 1) the mix-up between the 2009 election and the 2019 election. 2) Saying Vlaams Belang has no support in Wallonia is incorrect, walloons are not able to vote for V.B. due to the state structure. I reckon there would be more support than expected and I am not the only one : NVA has a plan to present eligible representatives in Wallonia for that sole purpose in the 2024 election.

everybody keeps making video's about belgium, none adress the francification of Brussels and attempted francification of other cities, and don't remember that congo was french speaking, not bilingual

One fact is forgotten: The prime minister is delivered by the 7th political party. I think that's unique in the world. (and not very democratic)

This vid was pretty spot on, and tbh, those 500 days without a gov was just the 2nd time that happened. Just a detail i feel some might be curious about.

I would've loved to see you mention the median income per capita as we rank as the highest and the closest to our average in Europe. ^^

The audio quality is so bad, I don't understand why. Its a beautiful video but sounds like the narrator talks through a napkin. In a 90's landline phone conversation.

As a french, I can tell that we love Belgium in france !

All very nice to start Belgian history with the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, but lets not forget there was a tome before this this state was created by a coup in 1813 following Napoleons defeat at Leipzig, and was formalised in 1815 by forging the result of referendum held in the southern Netherlands (the provinces that are today Belgium voted against the union with Holland, but these results were changed by scraping some because they were catholics and adding some, thus changing the result from a no to a yes to join the united kingdom of the Netherlands.) The southern Netherlands today known as Belgium have a long history of semi autonomous provinces within a larger state, and only when a state forces centralisation and unification, as the Dutch tried in 1820s, the people rebel, prefering some kind of regional autonomy. Belgium has been a European trade hub since the 12th century, with a good balance between tradition and innovation.

I'm also a belgian. First of it was a great video. It changed a bit of my perspectif of the political sytuation in the country. First I thought that we are just bad at making parlement. But after the video I understand why it is so difficult. And as you say in the video we are an country whit lots of differences. And we are a smaller version of the EU. So I think that must be proud of or laeders that the keep our country togheter.

I'm Flemish from the Dutch part of Belgium, in this part it’s required by law to learn French in school, the French not Dutch. The list goed on…

Regions don't have the same parties. So in Flanders you can't vote for Walloon parties, and in Wallonia you can't vote for Flemish parties, which makes forming federal governments insane. Plus let's not gloss over the fact that the French speaking poliical elite still has an imperialistic mindset inherited from the fact that after independence, french was the solitary language and the Dutch language was being oppressed.

Maybe you could make a video about EU overseas territories?

7:58-8:11 I think my Belgian contacts would heavily disagree with the state of Belgium being "responsive" or maintaining a "coherent" national policy.

iirc in theory we have 7 parliaments, however, The Flemish government governs both the Flemish region and the Flemish community, so actually 6 parliaments in total. Correct me if I'm wrong though.

at 7:55 you didn't color 'waals Brabant' on the picture of the french speaking parts nor the dutch speaking part

Wat ik zo leuk vind aan Belgïe is dat jullie "zeker en vast" zeggen en wij Nederlanders "vast en zeker" (Ik weet helaas niet of er meer voorbeelden zijn van dergelijke uitdrukkingen)

Can someone explain to me how non attached MEP in European parliament works? 10:17 I know they do not belong to any group but why and how does that work?

56% tax rate 🤔 Im Belgian and I dont know how its possible to have a country in high debt and that number of tax on my salary.

The reason for the ultimate good result of Vlaams Belang is that Belgium indeed accepts everyone and respects their backgrounds. But that often, very often clashes with young people of foreign origin and the Flemish. Consider again that the French language is being overwhelmed in Flanders because people of foreign origin prefer French as the language to speak to a negative reaction from Flanders and people blame the EU for this. It was even said that Charles Michel had sold the country to the EU to use Flanders as an open country for foreigners, resulting in the results of the Extreme Right. I hold my heart for the next votings.

When you live in Belgium you understand why it was pick to be the capital of EU. It is such a unique deverse country that is almost impossible to seperate from EU. The Vlaamse side will determine the future of Belgium.

we are like a miniature europe

since joining the European Union the Belgium economy has slowly but steadily declined...the national debt to gdp is 106% and climbing....if Belgium did not live on tick they would be in a ghastly depression,,,.debt has masked the deterioration of Belgium and blinded its people to the fact that their joining the eu was a ghastly mistake...

After all the countries had their own video, you could talk about the candidates, like Serbia, Ukraine ect, and whether they are a good fit or not in the union

I had no idea my country was this interesting

Belgian viewer here. A few nuances that need to be corrected: - 2:16 The animosity in those days were not sparked by some jealousy over the economic progress in the south, as you allude here. The animosity came from the entrenched elitism of the French speakers who snubbed their noses at the Flemish and the Dutch language. The French language dominated political life, all institutions and universities, even in the Flemish region. This all the while the Flemish were and are a majority in in Belgium, the capital is in Flanders and a Flemish city etc. You can guess this has bred a lot of animosity in Flanders and has resulted in the current disposition where Flanders is more pro-separation than Wallonia (which will never happen btw). - 9:23 There is no "rising tide" in Belgium, unless you mean the actual tides. Politically, EVERYTHING in Belgium moves slow, very, very slow. There is an unspoken agreement called the "cordon sanitaire" where specifically Vlaams Belang, the racist idiot party, is excluded from any government. This has been upheld for several decades now. Not only that, but federally they would never ever be able to rule, because 45% of the country speaks French, most of whom live in Wallonia. Yeah, you could guess that Walloons never would vote for a party literally called "Flemish Concerns", which is basically Flanders' "Flanders First" party. That means that VB would have to literally convince every Flemming from every corner of Flanders to vote for them for there to be any significant political shift federally. So you'll understand that no election in Belgium in the lifetime of anyone reading this will turn over the reigns to the extreme-right such as Vlaams Belang. Luckily, because they are dumb as f**k. - We have 6 parliaments, not 7. Otherwise a good job.

im belgian and i really liked your explanation, personally i dont really like my country but overal i think we are doing good with the EU.

I am an Italian citizen, I was wondering to move out to Belgium. I use to live in UK, London, but with the Brexit I left there to Spain, city of Lleida, near to Barcelona. Now I am planning to move to Liege Belgium. I like speak English and I think I could get French easily as I already Speak Spanish, Italian and Portugues. I work on the electronic music industry and I thought there would be good for the logistc.. Is seems near to everywhere. Any advice about it? Thanks a lot, appreciated!

You forgot to mark beitain as a germanic region

Polish cap here. Belgium as a battlefield of Europe? * smiles indistinctly *

I'm belgian and loved the video i'm from flanders ad I think it will look cool belgium splitting but I'm not sure if people will survive

cant wait for video about slovakia

Ben je Nederlands? Het viel me op bij je uitspraak van ‘Vlaams Belang’

I'm also from Belgium, and I loved this. The beginning of this little movie was a bit off, as the origins of Belgium and its 2 main communities dates from way before 1815. Actually we can situate it around the year 1400, when the county of Flanders, the duchy of Brabant, the county of Namur and most of the other parts were united under Burgundian, then Habsburg rule. And the linguistic division can even be traced back to Roman times. The position of Belgium as a founding member of the ECCS, the EEG and then the EU is indeed key. Not hard to understand when you consider the small size of the country, and its history as one of the main battlefields of European history. We even have Waterloo ! To me, our future cannot and should not be outside the unified Europe. The rise of the Right-Wing menace to that unity is my main concern. Let's hope common sense prevails, especially given the existential threats to our democratic views, posed by the new Russian imperialism, Chinese dominance and the threats of other dictatorial regimes. My main nightmare has a 4-digit name : Orwell's 1984...

Great video thanks. Nato also has its headquarters in Belgium.

Can you make a video about each party in the European Parliament please? I think it would be great content! @EUMadeSIMPLE