This article explains the status of the municipality. For the city itself at the level of the Brussels-Capital Region, see Brussels. The City of Brussels (French: Bruxelles-Ville or Ville de Bruxelles, Dutch: Stad Brussel) is the largest municipality of the Brussels-Capital Region, and the official capital of Belgium by law.[1]
Somewhat in the way that the City of London is different from London, the City of Brussels is different from Brussels. However, the expansion of the City was frozen at a later stage than the City of London, so that in addition to the old centre of Brussels, the towns of Haren, Laken (Dutch) or Laeken (French) and Neder-Over-Heembeek (Dutch and French), the Louise Avenue and the Bois de la Cambre/Terkamerenbos are included.
On 1 January 2006, the City of Brussels had a total population of 144,784. The total area is 32.61 km² which gives a population density of 4,440 inhabitants per km². As of 2007, there were approximately 50,000 registered non-Belgians in Brussels City.[2]
Capital of Belgium
According to the Belgian Constitution (Art. 194) the capital of Belgium is the City of Brussels municipality. Arguments that the use of lower case in "ville" and "stad" in Article 194 for "ville de Bruxelles" (French), "stad Brussel" (Dutch) makes a subtle difference and means that Brussels at large is the capital cannot be defended on a legal basis. However, although the City of Brussels is the official capital, the funds delegated by the federation and region for the representative role of the capital are divided among the 19 municipalities and, in practice, national Belgian institutions are indeed located not only in the City of Brussels, although many are, but also in most of the other 18 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital region. The implication is that de facto the entire Region serves as capital, but de jure only the City of Brussels is entitled to the title of capital of Belgium.
Mayors
As in every other Belgian municipality, the City of Brussels is headed by a mayor, which should be confused with neither the Minister-President of the Brussels-Capital Region nor the Governor of Brussels-Capital.
See also
List of mayors of the City of Brussels
References
External links
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