To avoid constant deadlock in Belgian decision-making processes, a dual federal system was created in which the Belgian federated entities are as separate from each other as possible. However, the federal system functions according to the more general bipolar French-Dutch divide, rather than a divide between federated entities. The far-reaching untangling of competences enables important policies to be pursued without getting bogged down in the competing interests of the different subnational entities, but, as this chapter shows, it has also caused challenges for coordination between the different governments, leading to reduced effectiveness, higher governance costs, and lack of public trust. To remedy the lack of horizontal intergovernmental coordination, several formal and informal fora have been established, yet the coordination remains highly influenced by party politics, and an increase in ideological polarization in Belgium has made reaching compromise difficult. Nonetheless, we can discern that EU membership requires a shift from a purely dual federal system toward a more integrative system of government.