Proposition 50K2228

Logo (Chamber of representatives)

Projet de loi instituant un service volontaire d'utilité collective.

General information

Authors
MR Robert Denis
Open Vld Stef Goris
Submission date
Jan. 15, 2003
Official page
Visit
Status
Adopted
Requirement
Simple
Subjects
armed forces

Voting

Voted to adopt
CD&V Vooruit Open Vld MR
Voted to reject
N-VA FN VB
Abstained from voting
Groen Ecolo

Party dissidents

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Discussion

March 12, 2003 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

President Herman De Croo ⚙

by MM. José Canon and Jan Eeman, rapporteurs, refer to their written report.

Luc Paque LE ⚙

I believe that Mr. He wanted to intervene.

Robert Denis MR ⚙

I will be very brief. Our assembly adopted, at the beginning of February, the bill on the recruitment of military personnel. Amendments were introduced to establish a civil service, civil service, voluntary service to the community within the national defense alone.

As the authors of this bill, Mr. Stef Goris and I thought that this possibility should be extended beyond the Department of National Defense alone. In order to give this idea of voluntary service its full dimension, it is proposed to create a collective utility service that can be organized within the different federal administrations and then, after cooperation agreements, with the federated entities. In order to give some flexibility to the organization of this SUC, a service of collective utility, the modalities of implementation will be determined through royal decrees deliberated in Council of Ministers.

Our wish is that this device can allow as many young people to integrate quickly into the professional world, to be directly confronted with the professional requirements and the concrete realities of everyday life.

We believe it is our duty, as political leaders, to promote by all means the insertion of our young people in the working life. They should not be left on the edge of the road of life. It is necessary, for some of them, to accompany them with more determination, more guidance in order to put them on the path. It is the entire social dimension of this project that must result in the full membership of our assembly. Members of the current and future government will find in our unanimity, which I hope for tomorrow, the motivation to implement this useful and flexible instrument.

Stef Goris Open Vld ⚙

Today, a happy man stands before you. Three is shipping law. I already submitted a bill in 1998, when I was still a senator in a previous life, along with colleague De Decker, now Senate Chairman. I submitted the same bill again in this House in 2000. Eventually we sat together with colleague Robert Denis and after some re-effects made what it has become today. Their

The initial proposal had the ambition to take a number of steps to the other departments. The current does that too, but does not work it out in detail. Therefore, we have also managed to reach unanimous approval of this proposal within the Committee on Land Defense. The problem was, in fact, that within this committee we ourselves already wanted to complete the contacts to the other departments, which we, by the way, still have in mind. This would, of course, be an endless debate in all other committees. In order to avoid this, we have left the initiative to the government, more specifically to the Minister of Land Defense, to conclude within the government a number of agreements with the other departments in order to give the volunteers who wish to participate in this service for collective benefit the opportunity to perform this service also in other federal departments. I would like to emphasize that we continue to consider this possibility, that it also remains unshorted, that it is up to the government and to the next government, we come to the end of the legislature, and to the next Minister of Defense – whoever it may become – to implement this legislation. Hopefully he will give this shape through the necessary implementation decisions. A number of measures were included in the law to make the entrance attractive for those volunteers. I would like to list them. First and foremost, there is the waiting time for the unemployment benefit that is reduced to 155 days. This will make it much more attractive for young school dropouts who do not immediately see work or do not immediately find work. The days spent count for retirement. This also seems to me important as a measure to increase the attractiveness. The soldij that is paid is linked to the unemployment benefit. One will, for all clarity, receive a soldier that will be roughly equal to that of a beginner military volunteer. It is not so, as I read in the press here and there, that the soldij and the unemployment benefit are accumulated. This is not the case. The total soldier will consist of the two components. The total soldj is approximately the initial salary of a candidate-professional volunteer. One will also enjoy a number of other benefits such as the free transportation with the NMBS, possibly expanded with the regional transport companies. We also want to give these young people the opportunity to learn a number of things during that voluntary service, such as second language or basic concepts in automotive mechanics or other skills that may be useful in later professional life. In addition, we also provide the possibility for the young volunteer to apply on the free market during the service and provided that the one-month waiver can also transition to that labour market. I would like to emphasize, colleagues, that we also count on, or hope, that some of those people who initially never thought of choosing a career in the army, in the military force, will nevertheless feel attracted after weeks or months and will feel called to eventually, as they say, sign up, consider a career in the military force and thus also put a hand on the problem of recruitment. You know that this problem is acute and in this way one is trying to address it somewhat. Their

A number of experts were able to tell us that we can or dare count on approximately a thousand candidate applicants for such voluntary service of collective benefit. I think that is a nice number. If, indeed, in this way we can give 1,000 young people the opportunity instead of having to stay at home during their waiting time, having to turn their fingers without having many useful things to have in hand, to thus spend their time usefully for society and for themselves. Why would these young people not be given the opportunity to take a bit of adventure and go with them to Kosovo, ⁇ even Afghanistan? These are things that may also appeal to some young people, to spend a few months at the military force for that reason. Therefore, colleagues, I repeat, it is for me a special pleasure that, although after a long journey — more than five years ago, I served this for the first time — together with colleague Denis and with a number of other signatories and supported by all the factions in this Chamber, we can conclude this chapter. We hope that the Minister will very soon make the necessary implementation decisions to then be able to pass to the publicity, the announcement of the opening of this service of collective benefit, which then hopefully a lot of young Belgians will subscribe. I thank you.