The Party of European Socialists (PES) is a social democratic European political party.
The politics of Belgium take place in the framework of a federal, representative democratic, constitutional monarchy. The King of the Belgians is the head of state, and the prime minister of Belgium is the head of government, in a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Federal legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament, the Senate and the Chamber of Representatives. The federation is made up of (language-based) communities and (territorial) regions. Philippe is the seventh and current King of the Belgians, having ascended the throne on 21 July 2013.
Belgium is a federal state comprising three communities and three regions that are based on four language areas. For each of these subdivision types, the subdivisions together make up the entire country; in other words, the types overlap.
The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) is the European Union's (EU) assembly of local and regional representatives that provides sub-national authorities with a direct voice within the EU's institutional framework.
The Reformist Movement is a liberal French-speaking political party in Belgium, which includes social-liberal and conservative-liberal factions. Stemming from the Belgian Liberal Party founded in 1846, the MR is one of the oldest parties on the European continent.
The German-speaking Community, also known as East Belgium, is one of the three federal communities of Belgium, with an area of 854 km2 (330 sq mi) in the Liège Province of Wallonia, including nine of the eleven municipalities of Eupen-Malmedy. The primary language of the community is German, making this one of the three official languages in Belgium. Traditionally the community and the wider area around it forms an intersection of various local languages and/or dialects, namely Limburgish, Ripuarian and Moselle Franconian varieties. The community population numbers around 79,000 – about 7.0% of Liège Province and about 0.7% of the national total.
Joseph Leinen is a German politician who served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1999 until 2019. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party, part of the Party of European Socialists.
The Parliament of the German-speaking Community is the legislative assembly of the German-speaking Community of Belgium located in Eupen.
ProDG is a regionalist, Christian-democratic political party active in the German-speaking Community of Belgium. The party brings together politicians from the previous Party of German-speaking Belgians (PDB) and Parteilos Jugendliche Unabhängige (PJU) movement. The party was formed in 2008 and first featured on the electoral ballot in 2009. Following the 2009 regional election, the party won four out of 25 seats in the Parliament and participated in the regional Government of the German-speaking Community of Belgium with two ministers. In the 2014 regional election, the party won six seats and its leader Oliver Paasch became the new minister-president.
The Senate is one of the two chambers of the bicameral Federal Parliament of Belgium, the other being the Chamber of Representatives. It is considered to be the "upper house" of the Federal Parliament. Created in 1831 as a chamber fully equal to the Chamber of Representatives, it has undergone several reforms in the past, most notably in 1993 and 2014. The 2014 elections were the first without a direct election of senators. Instead, the new Senate is composed of members of community and regional parliaments and co-opted members. It is a chamber of the communities and regions and serves as a platform for discussion and reflection about matters between these federated entities. The Senate today plays a minor role in the federal legislative process. However, the Senate, together with the Chamber, has full competence for the Constitution and legislation on the organization and functioning of the Federal State and the federated entities. Since the reform of 2014, it holds about ten plenary sessions a year.
The Constitutional Court plays a central role within the federal Belgian state. This is a judicial court founded in 1980. Its jurisdiction was augmented in 1988 and 2003.
Peter Karl Otto Straub is a politician from Germany, and served as president of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) of the European Union (EU) from 2004 to 2006.
The Chamber of Representatives is one of the two chambers in the bicameral Federal Parliament of Belgium, the other being the Senate. It is considered to be the "lower house" of the Federal Parliament.
Regional elections were held in Belgium on 25 May 2014 to choose representatives for the Flemish Parliament, Walloon Parliament, Brussels Parliament and the Parliament of the German-speaking Community. These elections were held on the same day as the 2014 European elections as well as the 2014 Belgian federal election.
Karl-Heinz Brunner is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). He was elected a member of the German parliament (Bundestag) in the federal election of 2013 until October 2021.
Markku Antero Markkula is a Finnish politician and the First Vice-president of the European Committee of the Regions. A member of Finland's Espoo City Council since 1980 - where he was president from 1990 to 1992 and again in 2010 - Markkula is a member of the Board of the Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council and has been Chairman of the Espoo City Planning Board since 2004.
Oliver Paasch is a Belgian politician of the German-speaking Pro Deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft party and the incumbent Minister-president of the German-speaking Community of Belgium.
The 2019 Belgian regional elections took place on Sunday 26 May, the same day as the 2019 European Parliament election as well as the Belgian federal election.
Joseph Maraite was a Belgian politician of the German-speaking Community.
Isabelle Weykmans is a Belgian politician of the Partei für Freiheit und Fortschritt (PFF). She has been Minister in the Government of the German-speaking Community since 2004 and is currently responsible for the areas of culture, employment and tourism.
