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Brussels ( French : Bruxelles, Dutch : Brussel, German : Brüssel) is a major city in Belgium and its capital.

Overview

Brussels is first of all a city located in the center of Belgium and its capital, but it sometimes also refers to the mainmunicipality of the Brussels-Capital Region . Thismunicipality inside Brussels is correctly named The City ofBrussels (Bruxelles-Ville or Ville de Bruxelles in French , de Stad Brussel in Dutch ), whichis one of 19 municipalities that make up the Brussels-Capital Region.

The Brussels-Capital Region is a region of Belgium in its own right, alongside the Flemish Region and Wallonia , and is geographically 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 andeducation.

Brussels is also the capital of the FrenchCommunity of Belgium (Communauté française Wallonie-Bruxelles in French) and of Flanders ; all Flemish capital institutions are established there: Flemish Parliament , Flemishgovernement and its administration.

Two of the three main institutions of the European Union , the European Commission and the Council of the European Union , have theirheadquarters 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 itsheadquarters in Strasbourg ). This leads to a 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 TreatyOrganisation, 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 thisarticle's history section ).

History

The name Brussels comes from Bruocsella ou Brucsella, which means "marsh home" or "home in the marsh". Asmall castle was built around 979 C.E. near the Senne .

Brussels's linguistic history

The Brussels Capital Region is currently home for both French- and Dutch-speakers. Dutch, or more precisely its "linguisticpredecessors", was the language of the city from its foundation. In those first 6 centuries, French was only used in therelations with the then "Romance-speaking" (linguistic predecessors of French) areas around Nivelles. During the Austrian period,'Dutch' remained the popular language in Brussels, and French was for several centuries only spoken by the haute-bourgeoisie andthe nobility. It started becoming only a somewhat popular language under the French regime, and especially after 1830, by theimmigration of many French (revolutionaries and others) and many Walloons, attracted by the new Belgian authorities. As in 1830,only the haute-bourgeoisie and the nobility (1% of the population) had voting rights, these groups wanted to fashion the newstate along their personal preferences. As a result, they had to attract many French-speaking Walloons to staff the publicservices.

The area, which is geographically situated in the south of Flanders, was still mostly Dutch-speaking until the middle of the 20th century . During the 19th and 20th century, more and moreFrench-speaking civil servants coming from Wallonia settled in Brussels and persistent social, administrative, cultural andpolitical pressure made many Flemings switch their vernacular to French.

The Brussels-Capital region nowadays is officially French-Dutch bilingual. There are persistant and also officiallyacknowledged reports of discrimination against Dutch-speakers. Many Flemings complain about a strong pressure fromFrench-speakers against the bilingual status inside the Brussels-Capital region. In the early 90's, an official declaration fromthe regional government explicitely acknowledged that social housing was de facto reserved entirely for those applying in French.As late as 2003, Rudy Demotte ,the federal minister of Public Health and a French-speaking socialist, has publicly acknowledged that urgent medical servicesdiscriminated against Dutch speakers, in the sense that it was often difficult for Dutch speakers to use their own language [1] . However, Belgian judiciary hasnever been willing to engage in any official investigation; all these complaints are still pending.

Universities

Brussels has several universities, two of them being the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).

Transport

Conferences and world fairs

Brussels hosted the third Congrès international d'architecture moderne in 1930 .

Two world fairs took place in Brussels, the Exposition universelle et internationale (1935) and the Expo '58 in 1958 . The Atomium , a 103 metre representation of an iron crystal was built for the Expo '58, and is still there.

Tourist attractions

Brussels