Features of linguistic representation in the federal and local parliaments of the Kingdom of Belgium and their experience for Ukraine

Elections take place in a single multi-mandate constituency, with a proportional system with open party lists, as well as elections to other regional parliaments, but with separate lists of Dutchspeaking parties and French-speaking parties. Voters, who vote for the Dutch-speaking party, also vote for members of the Flemish Parliament (6 members of the Flemish Parliament are elected in such way).

All members of the parliament of the Brussels- Capital Region are divided into 2 language groups: 72 members belong to the French-speaking group and 17 - to the Dutch-speaking group.

The Parliament of the German-speaking Community is the legislative assembly of the Germanspeaking Community.

The Parliament of the German-speaking Community consists of 25 members. These 25 members have the right to vote. There are also some members with an advisory vote, in fact they are not deputies, but have the right to attend and take part in the meetings.

The advisory members are: the Provincial Councilors of Liege, members of the Parliament of Wallonia (German-speaking members), members of the House of Representatives and members of the Senate (living in the German-speaking Region), members of the European Parliament elected by German-speaking Electoral College.

Functions and powers are divided between Regional and Community Parliaments. It should be noted that in the case of the Flemish Region and the Flemish Community, all relevant functions and powers are attributed to the Flemish Parliament. The Flemish Parliament has the competences relating to the entire Flemish community, as well as those relating only to the Flemish Region. In the case of the Regional Parliaments of Wallonia and the Brussels- Capital Region and the Community Parliaments of French and German-speaking communities, the functions and powers are distributed as follows.

The main functions of Regional Parliaments are:

- development and adoption of legislative acts on regional issues, which are local laws, which have a legal effect on all residents of the region and on the institutions of the relevant language groups in Brussels;

- appointment and control of the government of the region;

- approval of the budget of the region;

- ratification of international treaties related to the powers of the parliament of the region.

The drafting and adoption of legislative acts on regional issues is carried out by the parliaments of the regions in the following areas:

- economics, employment and energy policy - includes state support for business, employment policy, agriculture and fisheries, distribution of electricity and natural gas, development and use of new energy sources, promotion of responsible energy use;

- urban planning, housing, land development and nature conservation - includes regional planning, construction permits, social policy, housing policy, urban renewal, conservation of monuments and natural objects, land consolidation and nature protection;

- environmental and water policy - includes reduction of air, soil and water pollution, noise control, sewage treatment, production and distribution of drinking water, waste management policy;

- scientific research - this branch is fully located in the field of regional authority, except aerospace and military research (they remain at the federal level);

- public works and transport - includes roads, ports, regional airports, city and regional transport;

- agriculture - includes almost all areas of agrarian policy (education in agriculture, rural development, agricultural and horticultural products, fisheries policy), with the exception of aspects such as food safety and animal welfare that remain in the field of federal government authority;

- local government - includes the allocation of financial resources to municipalities and provinces, as well as administrative supervision of these communes and provinces and their laws;

- international relations - includes the conclusion of international treaties with all countries; this competence includes the development of cooperation and foreign trade.

The main functions of the Community Parliaments are:

- election and control of the government of the community;

- development and adoption of decrees for the community;

- adoption of the annual budget of the community.

The development and adoption of decrees on the community is carried out by Community Parliaments in the following areas:

- culture - includes the issues of cultural heritage protection (literature, fine arts), tourism and the media.

- linguistic question - includes the use of language in schools and universities, in the relations between employers and employees, in local administrations, with the exception of some «language facilities» used by some municipalities;

- all «matters relating to the person» - include youth protection, family policy, child protection, disability policies, retirees, equal opportunities for immigrants;

- education - includes all questions from kindergarten to university, including scholarships. However, the issue of setting deadlines for compulsory education, requirements for the provision of scientific degrees, and retirement provision for teachers remain at the federal level;

- health care - includes preventive medical examination, home health care. Medical insurance, hospital financing, and most other competencies remain at the federal level.

The Belgian Federal Parliament is bicameral and consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate (The Belgian Constitution, 2017).

The House of Representatives consists of 150 (The Belgian Constitution, 2017).

Members of the House of Representatives are elected by direct voting with a proportional system with open regional lists - political parties nominate lists of candidates in each constituency. Each voter has one vote and can vote either for the party's list as a whole or for a separate candidate on the list (the vote in support of the candidate is considered as a vote in support of the whole party).

The electoral threshold is 5 %. Mandates in the district are distributed between parties with the Hare method (natural quotas). Particular candidates from the party list which will get seats in the House of Representatives are determined with the D'Hondt method. First of all mandates are got by the candidates from the list who receive more votes than the electoral quota. If not all mandates received by the party are used, their balance is distributed among other candidates from the party list in such way: to the quantity of votes for the candidate with the highest results in the list the quantity of votes for the party are added (in the quantity to achieve the electoral quota). This procedure should be applied till all votes for the party are exhausted or all mandates are distributed.

The members of the House of Representatives are elected in 11 constituencies. The distribution of seats between constituencies is proportional to the number of voters in each of them and is reviewed every 10 years.

All members of the House of Representatives are divided into 2 language groups: Dutch-speaking and French-speaking. Representatives elected in the Flemish Region (in constituencies: Antwerp - 24 representatives, East Flanders - 20, Flemish Brabant - 15, Limburg - 12 and West Flanders - 16) automatically belong to the Dutch-speaking language group. Representatives elected in the Walloon Region (in constituencies: Eno - 18, Liege - 15, Luxembourg - 4, Namur - 6, Walloon Brabant - 5) form the Frenchspeaking language group. The 15 elected representatives in Brussels can choose to which language group to join. It should be noted that in the Walloon Region there is the German-speaking community of Belgium, which corresponds to the constituency of Liege. Representatives elected in Liege constituency belong to the French-speaking language group in the House of Representatives. A German-speaking language group in the House of Representatives doesn't exist. Representatives elected in Brussels belong to the language group in whose language they make the oath.

To be a member of the House of Representatives one must: be Belgian, enjoy civil and political rights, have reached the age of 18, and be resident in Belgium (The Belgian Constitution, 2017).

The members of the House of Representatives are elected for 5 years (The Belgian Constitution, 2017).

The powers of the House of Representatives concern, first of all, the adoption of laws and the control over the activities of the government. The bills are adopted in one reading and passed to the Senate.

The Senate is the upper house of the Belgian Federal Parliament. The Senate was established in 1831 as authority that is absolutely equivalent to the House of Representatives, but after a series of reforms (in particular in 1993 and 2014), it became the upper house of the Belgian Federal Parliament. In the 2014 elections, the Senate was formed for the first time not from members elected by voters, but from members Regional and Community Parliaments, as well as co-opted members. Thus, now the Senate is the platform for discussion and exchange of experience between different communities and plays a minority role in federal legislative processes.

The Senate is composed of 60 senators (The Belgian Constitution, 2017) and is divided to 2 language groups: French-speaking (43 senators) and Dutch-speaking (16 senators); 1 senator appointed by the Parliament of the German-speaking Community does not belong to any language group.

Senators are appointed as follows:

- 29 senators appointed by the Flemish Parliament from among its members or from the members of the Dutch linguistic group of the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region;

- 10 senators appointed from among its members by the Parliament of the French Community;

- 8 senators appointed from among their own members by the Parliament of the Walloon Region;

- 2 senators appointed from among its members by the French linguistic group of the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region;

- 1 Senator appointed from among its own members by the Parliament of the Germanspeaking Community;

- 6 senators co-opted by 29 senators appointed by the Flemish Parliament from among their own members or the Dutch linguistic group of the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region;

- 4 senators co-opted by 8 senators appointed by the Parliament of the Walloon Region from among their own members and 2 senators appointed by the French linguistic group of the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region from among its members (The Belgian Constitution, 2017).

The German-speaking senator is elected by a simple majority, while other seats held by representatives of Regional and Community Parliaments are distributed on the basis of the results of the House of Representatives elections. These senators have a dual mandate.

The seats of the co-opted senators (elected by other senators)are distributed among the parties according to the results of the elections to the House of Representatives. Senators are appointed for the term of 5 years.

In order to be appointed as a senator, one must: be Belgian, enjoy civil and political rights, have reached the age of 18, and be resident in Belgium (The Belgian Constitution, 2017).

Each senator makes the oath in one of the three official languages of Belgium, but the senator can do it in more than one language. A member of the Senate cannot be a member of the House of Representatives at the same time (The Belgian Constitution, 2017). Any member of the Senate appointed by the King as minister and who accepts this appointment ceases to sit in the Senate and takes up his mandate again when the King has terminated his office as minister (The Belgian Constitution, 2017). The senator cannot be a civil servant or a representative of the judiciary. However, a civil servant who is elected to the Senate does not leave office, but has the right to political leave as a civil servant. The senator cannot be a member of the European Parliament at the same time.

The main purpose of the Senate is to be a platform for discussion and exchange of experience between different groups. In spite of the fact that the federal state, regions and communities must adhere to federal loyalty, sometimes conflicts of their interests arise. The Senate resolves such conflicts by providing substantiated advice, but they are not binding. The role of the Senate in federal legislative processes is minor.

The distribution of powers between the House of Representatives and the Senate generally gives the Senate less power.