Its main goal is to provide both constitutional exemptions for and privileges to Francophones living in Dutch-speaking Flanders, for example by annexing the municipalities with language facilities to the officially bilingual Brussels-Capital Region.

In the 1980s the Groupement des francophones de la Périphérie (GFP) was created, grouping French-speaking elected officials from the Flemish communes of the Brabant province.

The UF is a cooperative structure without direct members, run by representatives of 4 French-speaking parties, the Reformist Movement (MR), the Francophone Democratic Federalists (a member of MR until 25 September 2011), the Humanist Democratic Centre and the Socialist Party, plus the elected officials at the regional and provincial levels, and the burgomasters.

[2] As a heterogenous multi-party coalition, the UF doesn't follow a specific ideological point of view.

However, reflecting the social composition of the population in these rather privileged suburbs, most of the elected officials belong to the centre-right Reform Movement.