European institutions in Strasbourg seats in Strasbourg. Due to this concentration in such a small area, Strasbourg, like Brussels, claims the title of "capital of Europe". While Brussels is the capital city of a trilingual State, Belgium, Strasbourg has had long periods of rule by both France or Germany, assimilating both of their cultures and languages (it also has the Alsatian language). Strasbourg also has the distinction of being one of only three cities to host major international institutions without being a capital (the others being New York City and Geneva). In Brussels' case, it claims the title through referring to the European Union,
Strasbourg-Ortenau Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau Eurodistrict The Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau is a Franco-German eurodistrict, a cross-border administrative entity ("European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation") sharing common institutions, established on 17 October 2005 and definitely functional since 4 February 2010. The district is formed by the Eurométropole de Strasbourg (centred on the city of Strasbourg) and 3 other urban communities (of Rhinau, Erstein and Benfeld) in the Grand Est region on the French side of the Rhine and the Ortenau district (including Achern, Kehl, Lahr, Oberkirch and Offenburg) in the Baden-Württemberg region on the German side. The population of the district was 915,000 in 2014. It covers