Proposition 50K0226

Projet de loi modifiant la loi du 5 août 1991 sur la protection de la concurrence économique.

General information ¶

Submitted by

Groen Open Vld Vooruit PS | SP Ecolo MR Verhofstadt Ⅰ

Submission date

Nov. 4, 1999

Official page

Visit

Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

competition policy merger control

Voting ¶

Voted to reject

Groen Ecolo PS | SP Open Vld N-VA MR

Abstained from voting

CD&V LE FN VB

Party dissidents ¶

• Richard Fournaux (MR) abstained from voting.
• Karel Pinxten (Open Vld) abstained from voting.

Contact form ¶

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Discussion ¶

Feb. 9, 2000 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

We are dealing with the draft law amending the law of 5 August 1991 on the protection of economic competition, amended by the law of 26 April 1999 and fully in force since 1 October 1999. One of the key innovations of this latter law is the establishment of a Journalist Corps at the Competition Service. The law stipulates that journalists are recruited through exams, which seems logical to me. The previous government has overlooked or forgotten that the Permanent Recruitment Secretariat should have the necessary time to organize a recruitment examination. There was a law, but, in the absence of journalists, it could not be applied immediately. Since everyone agreed, and it is still, that the new Competition Council must be operational urgently, the Minister presents this bill. It gives the King the opportunity to appoint temporary officials – officials of the Ministry of Economic Affairs – who can exercise the functions entrusted to the reporters. These designations are, of course, temporary and only valid for a maximum of 1 year, insofar as the reporters, selected by the VWS, have not yet been appointed. These temporary officials will of course, as foreseen, have to meet all the conditions. The Committee of the Enterprise discussed this draft law quite thoroughly during its meetings of 11 and 25 January 2000. The draft law aims to introduce Chapter 7, a transitional provision. During the discussion, the CVP Group submitted three amendments aimed at amending articles other than those of the approved Act of 5 August 1991. They did not relate to the bill submitted by Minister Demotte. The amendments were examined quite extensively but, unfortunately for the applicants, were not adopted. During the discussions, a repair law was also discussed. The three amendments were rejected by 10 against 4, with 2 abstentions. The committee adopted the bill, as proposed, with 10 votes for and 6 abstentions. Minister Demotte has agreed to evaluate this law and its applications after 1 instead of after 3 years. Mr. Speaker, colleagues, this is the report of the discussions and the votes on this bill, which may be submitted for voting tomorrow in this hemisphere. I would like to thank all those who have contributed to this.

Mr. Speaker, can I ask if it is usual that we begin the discussion of a bill in the absence of the Minister?