The term Flemish Community (Dutch: Vlaamse Gemeenschap ; French: Communauté flamande; German: Flämische Gemeinschaft ) has two distinct, though related, meanings:
- Culturally and sociologically, it refers to Flemish organizations, media, social and cultural life; alternative expressions for this concept might be the "Flemish people" or the "Flemish nation" (in a similar sense as the Scottish, Welsh, or Québécois people or nations, referring to a national identity). The term "community" should then not be capitalized.
- Politically, it is the name of which both elements are normally capitalized, for one of the three institutional communities of Belgium, established by the Belgian constitution and having legal responsibilities only within the precise geographical boundaries of the Dutch-language area and of the bilingual area of Brussels-Capital. Unlike in the French Community of Belgium, the competences of the Flemish Community have been unified with those of the Flemish Region and are exercised by one directly elected Flemish Parliament based in Brussels.
Read more about Flemish Community: History, Legal Authority, Language, Flemish Institutions in Brussels, Media
Famous quotes containing the words flemish and/or community:
“These Flemish pictures of old days;
Sit with me by the homestead hearth,
And stretch the hands of memory forth
To warm them at the wood-fire’s blaze!”
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)
“Every community is an association of some kind and every community is established with a view to some good; for everyone always acts in order to obtain that which they think good. But, if all communities aim at some good, the state or political community, which is the highest of all, and which embraces all the rest, aims at good in a greater degree than any other, and at the highest good.”
—Aristotle (384–323 B.C.)