The way Belgium implements European Law, meaning how it transposes EU directives into national law, is heavily influenced by its federal structure. The fact that 7 governments and parliaments may all have to intervene in a transposition of a directive for which the competences are divided between them and the fact that a number of consultative procedures have to be respected (the legal scrutiny by the State Council and the advices to be given by committees consisting of trade and other professional unions) explain why Belgium has been lagging behind in transposing EU directives within their time limit. In Belgium the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in charge of coordinating the transposition of EU directives and representing Belgium in procedures at the European Court of Justice.