Partition of Belgium emerged in Brussels, the capital and largest city of the country. Ethnic tensions have affected some of the city's surrounding municipalities, which are situated in Flanders, but have had a great influx of monolingual French-speakers as a result of suburbanisation. These Dutch-speaking "facility municipalities" are obliged to offer local government services in French, meaning health-care and public amenities are divided on linguistic lines, and in some municipalities the original French-speaking minority is believed to have become a majority. The main reason for Brussels being mainly French-speaking was the low social prestige of the Dutch language in Belgium during the 19th
Dutch-speaking electoral college Dutch-speaking electoral college The Dutch-speaking electoral college is one of three constituencies of the European Parliament in Belgium. It currently elects 12 MEPs using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation. Previously it elected 13 MEPS, until the 2013 accession of Croatia. Before that, it elected 14 MEPs, until the 2007 accession of Bulgaria and Romania. The constituency generally corresponds to the Flemish Community of Belgium. In officially bilingual Brussels, electors can choose between lists of this electoral college or those of the French-speaking electoral college. Prior to the 2011-2012 state reform, electors could choose between both lists not only