2023-10-11 21:34:00
No presentation could in fact take place this Wednesday before the combined Nomination and Designation Commission of the CSJ, where both French and Dutch speakers sit.
Indeed, explains Judge Xavier Ghuysen, member of the French-speaking Appointment and Designation Commission, the Dutch-speaking members of this commission in charge of appointments unanimously refused any nomination for the position of attorney general at the Brussels Court of Appeal. “They declared after the vote, through a previously designated spokesperson, that as long as the first presidency of the Brussels Court of Appeal was French-speaking, they would not present any candidate.”
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The first president of the court of appeal is currently Laurence Massart, who recently chaired the assize court responsible for judging the attacks of March 22, 2016 in Brussels. A few weeks ago, she won a summary action against the Belgian state and received authorization to extend her mandate.
She had in fact been refused an extension by the Minister of Justice, Vincent Van Quickenborne (Open Vld), under the principle of linguistic alternation. The post of head of the court of appeal should go to a Dutch speaker at the end of the year.
Seized in summary proceedings, the court however ordered the minister to transmit to the CSJ the application for renewal of the position of first president of the court of appeal of the person concerned. In the name of the principle of separation of powers, Vincent Van Quickenborne was not competent to refuse the request, he added.
Furthermore, the choice to refuse this renewal on the basis of linguistic alternation violates, according to the court, the judicial code and the law on the use of languages.
The court also “prohibited” the State from continuing the examination of applications for this position, among the most important in the country, as long as the Council of State, contacted by Ms. Massart, has not ruled.
The “deliberate and previously concerted” decision of the Dutch-speaking members of the joint Appointment and Designation Commission “paralyzes the action of the High Council of Justice in its constitutional mission”, regret the French-speaking members in charge of appointments.
“This situation is detrimental to the proper functioning of justice, in the jurisdiction of the Brussels Court of Appeal in particular, Brussels already deprived of a King’s prosecutor”, they finally recall.
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