2023-12-05 16:47:00
The secrecy surrounding the administrative documents kept by the federal government (and their possible delivery to citizens, journalists or associations who request a copy) strains the executive, which is currently struggling to pass its law on the subject: the latter comes from elsewhere to be referred to the Council of State, after a maneuver by the united opposition on this issue.
Non-dim promises
As a reminder, the European Commission repeatedly encourages the federal government to give the Commission for Access to Administrative Documents (CADA) binding powers, including in its latest report on the rule of law published this summer. A wish (and a promise from the Belgian executive to the Commission) which is not reflected in the law in preparation, to the great dismay of the European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders, who came to discuss the report in the Chamber this Tuesday. “We must move towards binding decisions from the CADA, improve this access to documents. A binding decision from a commission is a very strong signal”, insisted the Commissioner, questioned on this subject by PTB deputy Steven de Vuyst. The latter also questioned the Commissioner on possible exchanges between the Minister of the Interior Annelies Verlinden (CD&V), who is behind this law, and the European Commission. A priori, there were… none.
“I didn’t have direct contact, maybe my department did”replied Mr. Reynders. “In any case, there will be an evaluation and we are always open to dialogue”, he added. So to say that the Commission will reiterate its position in its next report, even if it means being less complacent than usual on this subject.
Only problem: the next report is planned after the elections and the law is supposed to come into force next April…
Other concerns
Furthermore, there was no shortage of areas of concern on the agenda of this exchange between the parliamentarians and the Commissioner, as well as with Martien Schotsmans, director of the institute for the protection of human rights. Both mentioned the State’s shortcomings in terms of independence, quality and efficiency of justice in Belgium (in particular the non-execution of certain decisions against the State, an old Belgian evil ). And this, despite the efforts undertaken. The same goes for the integrity policy, “both for ministers and their cabinets and for deputies (…) the general awareness of the notion of conflict of interest being weak”as highlighted in the European Commission report this summer.
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#Transparency #governments #radio #silence