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About Belgium

For many Americans, Belgium owes its fame to its capital, Brussels, and to a few of its typical national products such as chocolates, lace, endive and beer. It would be incorrect to believe that the very positive image Belgium enjoys abroad rests solely on these few criteria.
Belgium is more. It is home to the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Powers in europe (SHAPE), the european Commission, the Council of the european Union and many other european and international institutions. Its foreign policy since the end of the Second World War can be defined in a few words: attachment to european integration and to NATO, special attention to central Africa, and loyal partnership with the United States.

Belgium is part of a major urban and commercial axis and of a heavily urbanized zone extending from England to the north of Italy. Located in the north west of europe, at the edge of the North Sea, Belgium, with its ten million people, is one of the most densely populated and prosperous countries in the world. It occupies a central position in western europe, between Germany, the Netherlands, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and France.

But Belgium is also and above all a country greatly attached to democratic values. By constitutionally recognizing three communities (the Flemish, the French and the German-speaking) and three regions (Flanders, Brussels-Capital and Wallonia), Belgium has become a modern and dynamic federal State.

Thanks to its excellent geographical location and its particularly well-developed communications networks, Belgium occupies a key position as the nerve center of european economic and city life. It thus amply fulfills its vocation as "Capital of europe".

More information about Belgium can be found at: www.belgium.be