Capital: Namur
Population: 3.275.923 
Surface: 16.844 km² 
Languages: French and German

Belgium is a federal State which is composed of a federal authority, of the 3 Communities: the French Community, the Flemish Community, the German-speaking Community, and of 3 regions:  the region of Wallonia, the Flemish Area, the Area of the capital Brussels. 

Each federate entity has a very broad autonomy, characterized by: 

• a Parliament consisting of elected representatives entitled to vote legislative standards which have the same force as the federal laws; 
• a Government whose members are elected by the Parliament and are accountable to it 
• individual competences in a series of significant matters; 
• the capacity to successfully negotiate treaties concerning these matters and to ensure its representation on the international scene; 
• an administration.

The political autonomy of the communities and the regions is founded on a broad range of competences.  Each authority – the Federal State, the communities, the regions - wield exclusive competences.

The matters coming under the responsibilities of the regions mainly relate to the economic and social fields, while the matters coming under the responsibilities of the Communities mainly relate to the individual rights of the people (teaching, culture, audio-visual). 

The French Community is in charge of the following fields: 

- exclusively: teaching (including the initial professional training), youth, assistance to the youth, culture, audio-visual.  
to a larger extent:  research (fundamental research), health (precautionary medicine and university hospitals), heritage (cultural heritage in terms of edifices), sport (sports activities). 

- The French Community makes use of its competences in areas where French is spoken (3,270 million inhabitants) and in the French-speaking institutions of the bilingual area of Brussels (0,960 million inhabitants). 

Wallonia is in charge of the following fields: 
· exclusively:  regional planning, rural restoration and nature conservation, housing and tourism. 

· to a larger extent: economy (including the promotion of the foreign investments), employment, foreign trade, agriculture, research (industrial research and new technologies), environment and water policy , energy, transport, heritage (cultural heritage in terms of edifices), life long learning, health (hospitals and other) and social assistance, sport (infrastructures), supervision of local and provincial authorities. 

The region of Wallonia exerts its competences on the territory of its five provinces (16.844 Km²) which includes two linguistic areas: the French-speaking area (3,270 million inhabitants) and the German –speaking area (70.000 inhabitants). 

The French Community and the area of Wallonia have the capacity to manage international relations in the matters of their internal competences. 

In this respect, they chose to reinforce the coherence and to supplement their actions in particular by: 

· regrouping the Administrations for international relations of the French Community (CGRI), the area of Wallonia (DRI) and the Wallonian Agency for exports (AWEX), under the aegis of a single general direction;

· installing common delegations in Brussels within the European Union offices like in Berlin, Dakar, Geneva, Hanoï, Kinshasa, Paris, Prague, Quebec, Rabat, Tunis. 

· a network of foreign offices abroad including the 77 economic and commercial representatives of Awex as well as the coordinators of the APEFE (Association for the promotion of education and training abroad which counts 140 co-operators in the developing countries).