Brussels

Brussels (French: Bruxelles, pronounced , and sometimes incorrectly by non-Belgian speakers of French; Dutch: Brussel, pronounced ; German: BrĂ¼ssel, pronounced ) is the capital of Belgium, of Flanders (consisting of both the Flemish Community and the Flemish Region) and of the French Community of Belgium, and it is the headquarters of most of the European Union's institutions. Brussels is the capital city, in the centre of Belgium, and also the largest municipality of the Brussels-Capital Region. This municipality inside Brussels is correctly named The City of Brussels (French: Bruxelles-Ville or Ville de Bruxelles, Dutch: Stad Brussel), which is one of 19 municipalities that make up the Brussels-Capital Region (see also: Municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region), with a total population of 1,024,492 inhabitants (1 January 2006). The municipality has a population of about 140,000. The Metropolitan area has about 2,090,000 inhabitants.

Brussels is also the political seat of NATO, the Western European Union (WEU) and EUROCONTROL, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (see: Political centre, below).