| French Community of Belgium Communauté française |
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| — Community of Belgium — | |||
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| Country | Belgium | ||
| Established | 1993 | ||
| Capital | Brussels | ||
| Government | |||
| • Minister-President | Rudy Demotte | ||
| Celebration Day | 27th September | ||
| Language | French | ||
| Website | www.cfwb.be | ||
| The Walloon flag was chosen as flag of the French Community of Belgium in 1975. It was adopted by the Walloon Region in 1998.[1][2] | |||
The French Community of Belgium (French: Communauté française, Dutch: Franse Gemeenschap, also called Wallonia-Brussels Federation) 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 French citizens in Belgium, it is not. The French Community of Belgium is not a group of people or inhabitants, but an official institution which refers to French-speaking Belgian citizens. As such, it is sometimes called the French-speaking Community of Belgium. The French Community of Belgium has its own parliament, government, and administration. Its official flag is also the official flag of Wallonia where 80% of its citizens live. Its capital is the City of Brussels.
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There were since years hints that the Community wanted to evidence the link between Wallonia and Brussels, being the two main territories where the community exercises its competences, such as when it created Wallonie-Bruxelles International, a public body in charge with international cultural competences by the Community, the Walloon Region and the Commission communautaire française (COCOF, a French-speaking institution of the Brussels-Capital Region).[3] The concept of "Wallonie-Bruxelles" is however not mentioned in the Belgian constitution, and appeared only in a few official legal texts, such as the "Arrêté du Gouvernement de la Communauté française fixant le code de qualité et de l'accueil" of 17 December 2003, mentioning the name "Communauté Wallonie-Bruxelles", and the "Arrêté du Gouvernement de la Communauté française approuvant le programme quinquennal de promotion de la santé 2004-2008 of 30 April 2004, mentioning the name "Communauté française Wallonie-Bruxelles".
In May 2011, the parliament of the Community voted a resolution according to which it would, from then on, use the name "Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles" for all its communications, campaigns and in the administration. The move was immediately interpreted as aggressive by the Flemish authorities, the Minister-President of Flanders announcing he would not recognize the federation as an official body and saying that documents that would be sent by the federation would be unconstitutional and therefore would not exist.[4]
While the authorities of the Community ackowledge the fact that the new name is not mentionned in the Belgian Constitution, they insist that their move is not illegal, as long as the new name is used as an additional name for the Community and is not used when it could create a legal issue (such as with the official texts published in the Belgian Official Journal) [5]
Although the Belgian Prime Minister said that it would no use the new name [6] and the Flemish VRT decided not to use the new name also in its news programmes,[7] the new name is somewhat used in the French-speaking part of the country: it is used by the French-speaking RTBF, which is fully controlled by the Community, but is not always used in independent media.
In September 2011, the Community adopted a new logo that incorporates its new name.
A confusion sometimes arises from the term "Flanders" which can refer to two different political institutions and concepts, being the Flemish Region and the Flemish Community. "Flanders", though not named in the Belgian constitution either, is more widely used in official publications, because the Region has merged its institutions with the Community – whereas the Walloon Region and the French Community of Belgium remain separate.
| Philippe Moureaux (1st time) | 22 December 1981 - 9 December 1985 | PS |
| Philippe Monfils | 9 December 1985 - 2 February 1988 | PRL |
| Philippe Moureaux (2nd time) | 2 February - 9 May 1988 | PS |
| Valmy Féaux | 17 May 1988 - 7 January 1992 | PS |
| Bernard Anselme | 7 January 1992 - 4 May 1993 | PS |
| Laurette Onkelinx | 4 May 1993 - 13 July 1999 | PS |
| Hervé Hasquin | 13 July 1999 - 19 July 2004 | PRL |
| Marie Arena | 19 July 2004 - 20 March 2008 | PS |
| Rudi Demotte | 20 March 2008 - incumbent | PS |
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