Walloon Region

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This article is about the Belgian federed region. For other uses, see Wallonia (disambiguation).

Walloon Region Région wallonne (French) Wallonische Region (German) Waals Gewest (Dutch)

Information
Official languages	French, German (area dependent)
Capital	Namur
Area	16,844 km²
ISO 3166-2	BE-WAL
Official website	www.wallonie.be
Population
Total	3,413,000 (January 1, 2006)
Density	202 / km²
Institutions
Minister-President	Elio Di Rupo
Established	1993
Celebration day	September 27
Anthem	Le Chant des Wallons
Location
Walloon Region in Belgium and its provinces
Brussels-Capital Region, Flemish Region, Walloon Region

The Walloon Region, commonly called Wallonia, is one of the three Regions of Belgium.

The region represents 33% of the population and 55% of the territory of Belgium. It is predominantly French-speaking but there are also German-speaking communes in the east. As the other regions, the Walloon Region has its own parliament and government and exercizes its functions by the limits defined by the Belgian constitution. Its capital is Namur. Its official languages are French and German.

1 Geography
2 Attributions
3 Emblems
4 Cities
5 Politics
6 Economy
7 Science and Technology
8 Internal links
9 External links
10 References

[edit] Geography

The territory of the Walloon Region is defined by the Belgian constitution: "The Walloon region is made up of the following provinces: The Walloon Brabant, Hainaut, Liège, Luxemburg and Namur."^[1]

This territory of 16,844 km² (55.18% of Belgium) occupying the southern part of Belgium is also divided into 20 administrative arrondissements and 262 communes.

[edit] Attributions

The constitutional system of Belgium grants the Walloon Region its own legislative and executive powers in the fields for which it is competent:

agriculture and rural renewal
development of the territory and town planning
economy and foreign trade
employment and vocational training
the environment, water and nature conservation
housing
local authorities, subsidized works and sports infrastructures
scientific research, new technologies and energy
international relations
health and social affairs
tourism and heritage
regional transport, mobility and public works.

[edit] Emblems

Since July 15, 1998, the Walloon Region has had as emblems a flag, an anthem and a "national" day, though the Walloon Region doesn't represent a nation.

The flag is a coq hardi de gueule sur fond d'or, "a bold red rooster on yellow", designed by Pierre Paulus in 1913, and adopted in July 1998.^[2] It is also the flag of the French Community of Belgium and they share the same "national" day, the 27th of September. The anthem is Le Chant des Wallons ("the Walloons' song"), written by Theophile Bovy in 1900 and composed by Louis Hillier in 1901.

There is also a logo, a red “W arrow” with the baseline “WALLOON REGION”.

[edit] Cities

The largest cities in the region include, as of 2007's population figures: [1]

Charleroi (199,612)
Liège (180,831)
Namur (106,770)
Mons (91,367)
La Louvière (76,657)
Tournai (67,944)
Seraing (60,878)
Verviers (52,646)
Mouscron (51,866)

[edit] Politics

Main article: Politics of the Walloon Region

Since 23 April 1993, Belgium has been a federal state, geographically split into three regions and linguistically split into three communities. The Walloon Region is one of the three (southern region, mainly French-speaking, with a population of 3,360,000), the two others being the Flemish Region (northern region, mainly Dutch-speaking, with a population of 5,900,000) and the Brussels-Capital Region (officially bilingual French/Dutch but mainly French-speaking, with a population of 980,000).

The Walloon region has a parliament (one chamber with 75 members elected for five years by direct universal suffrage) and a government responsible in front of the parliament. Its parliament exercices two functions:

It discusses and passes decrees, and they can take initiatives to draw them up. After this, decrees are sanctioned and promulgated by the Walloon government.
It controls the Walloon government. Control is exercised via the vote.

The government of Walloon is directed by a political majority. The government numbers nine members with the president. Each member is called a ministre.

The composition of the parliament for the 2004-2009 legislature is as follows:

Parti Socialiste (socialist party) : 34
Mouvement réformateur (liberal democrats, center right) : 20
Centre démocrate humaniste (former Christian party) : 14
Front national ("nationalist" party) : 4
Ecolo (green party) : 3

The head of the government, called Ministre-Président, was Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe until 2005, when Elio Di Rupo took his place.

[edit] Economy

The Walloon economy experienced a strong development in the 19th century, especially in the regions of Liège and Charleroi. Belgium was then the first country in continental Europe to undergo an industrial revolution in the early 1800s, mainly based on the iron and coal industries, which were both abundant in Wallonia. In 1842 John Cockerill (1790-1840), a British entrepreneur, founded the company Cockerill-Sambre, which would become one of the major producers of steel in Europe. Raoul Warocqué (1870-1917), who made the coal mines of Mariemont a success, was the wealthiest person in Belgium.

The profitability of these types of heavy industries started declining in the first half of the 20th century, which saw the center of industrial activity shift to the northern part of Belgium. Wallonia would be surpassed in economical development by Flanders only in the 1960s, when industrial production in the northern part of Belgium would catch up with Wallonia. The crisis in the steel industry led to a painful economic restructuration in Wallonia. Wallonia switched places with Flanders, regarding economical development. In 2004 the GDP per capita was €27,356 in Flanders, and only €19,858 in Wallonia.

The current Walloon economy is relatively diversified, although certain areas — especially around Charleroi and Liège — are still suffering from the steel industry crisis, with a high unemployment rate of up to 20% in some regions. The restoration of economical development is high on the political agenda.

The Ardennes area south of the Meuse River is a popular tourist destination with a rich cultural heritage, with places such as Bastogne, Dinant, Durbuy, and the famous balneotherapy of Spa.