Belgian Federal Parliament
| Belgian Federal Parliament Dutch: Federaal Parlement van België French: Parlement fédéral belge |
|
|---|---|
| Type | |
| Type | Bicameral |
| Houses | Senate Chamber of Representatives |
| Leadership | |
| President of the Senate | Sabine de Bethune, CD&V since October 11, 2011 |
| President of the Chamber | André Flahaut, PS since July 20, 2010 |
| Members | 221 71 senators 150 representatives |
| Elections | |
| Last election | June 10, 2007 |
| Last election | June 10, 2007 |
| Meeting place | |
 |
|
| Palace of the Nation, Brussels | |
| Website | |
| www.fed-parl.be | |
The Belgian Federal Parliament is a bicameral parliament. It has the Chamber of Representatives and the Senate. It sits in the Palace of the Nation.
Chamber of Representatives [change]
The number of seats in the Chamber is 150. They are elected from 11 districts. The districts are divided along linguistic lines: 5 Flemish (79 seats), 5 Walloon (49 seats), and the bilingual district of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde (22 seats).
To be elected a person must be at least 21 years old, have Belgium citizenship, and live in Belgium.
Senate [change]
The Senate has 71 members. There are four categories of senators: directly elected senators, community senators, co-opted senators and senators by right. Co-opted senators are 10 representatives elected by the first two groups of senators. Senators by right are the children of the current monarch.
Eligibility requirements for the Senate are the same as for the Chamber.
