The Belgian parliament consists of two parliamentary chambers or houses which are the Chamber of
Representatives and the Senate.
The Chamber of Representatives consists of 150 seats elected from 11 districts with seat numbers
varying across the districts based on population. The districts are made up of five Dutch, 5 French
and one which is bilingual. This division by language is mirrored in the chamber by slitting
representatives into Language Groups.
While each Language Group is granted equal power in the Chamber, bills which relate to specific
issues, “Community Laws”, do not require majority consent from both groups. Herman De Croo is the
current President of the Chamber.
The Senate is made up of 71 senators and wields less political clout than the Chamber of
Representatives. However, there are some cases where both chambers have equal say, these would be
cases of constitutional revisions, laws requiring a qualified majority (the so-called "community
laws"), laws on the basic structure of the Belgian State, laws approving agreements of cooperation
between the Federal State, the Communities and the Regions, laws on the approval of international
treaties, and laws on the organization of the judiciary, the Council of State and the Court of
Arbitration. Additionally, all bills concerning international treaties are introduced in the Senate
first, before moving on to the Chamber. Belgian royalty sit on the Senate and the current President
of the Senate is Anne-Marie Lizin.
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