Proposition 51K1247

Projet de loi insérant les articles 187bis, 187ter, 191bis, 191ter, 194bis et 194ter dans le Code judiciaire et modifiant les articles 259bis-9 et 259bis-10 du même Code.

General information ¶

Submitted by

PS | SP MR Open Vld Vooruit Purple Ⅰ

Submission date

June 25, 2004

Official page

Visit

Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

judicial power

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

Vooruit Ecolo PS | SP Open Vld MR

Voted to reject

CD&V LE N-VA FN VB

Party dissidents ¶

• Luc Sevenhans (VB) abstained from voting.
• Jef Van den Bergh (CD&V) abstained from voting.

Contact form ¶

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Discussion ¶

Dec. 23, 2004 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

I refer to the written report.

It’s wonderful to see how things get done easily early in the morning!

Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Minister, Mr. Ministers, Colleagues, what is on the table today is a magnificent stable, a sublime illustration, an almost unbeatable example of how decision-making is made in this country today. A party representing approximately 10% of the Belgian voters, the Socialist Party, can today once again triumph, once again exhibit its influence and power and then even in a dossier that is ⁇ sensitive, which has a lot to do with the way in which magistrates should be appointed in this country. Everyone knows that some politicians would like to expand their influence even further.

Only one party has actually defended this bill, which will greatly complicate the objective comparison of the candidates, in the committee and that was the Socialist Party of Laurette Onkelinx. All other parties have either opposed themselves, or put themselves very critically – the MR, for example, has put themselves very critically in this dossier, with the pleasure of, among other things, the gentlemen Courtois and Maingain – or silenced as loudly as possible in the committee and then, of course, I speak of the VLD and sp.a-spirit. Nevertheless, the Socialist Party succeeds in forcing this new gateway to non-objective appointments in the magistrate. They really do not think it is possible. Rarely was it so clearly expressed how superior that Socialist Party is and how submissive and slave the other parties follow it.

Colleagues, in any case, the hearings have shown that there is no need for this new gateway to the magistrates’ office for lawyers with 15 to 20 years of experience. There are enough candidates for the existing vacancies. Neither the magistrates nor the Flemish lawyers are the requesting party.

Mr. Speaker, it may be useful to know if they are photographing.

I asked you to come so early in the morning.

Can they photograph here?

This has nothing to do with the Social Affairs Committee.

( ... )

Explain to you.

Is this a particular way of investigating? Let me do mr. by Laeremans. The more calm you are, the better it is.

The magistrature is not the requesting party, nor the Flemish lawyers, nor the Flemish or French-speaking judicial trainees who otherwise feel justifiably threatened and of which inevitably a part of people will end up on a side track. Only the French-speaking lawyers — and they alone — support this design because they believe that there are currently too few elderly lawyers able to finish their careers. Consequently, they want to remove all thresholds, want privileges, want to be appointed without an objective comparative examination. Of course, they also get their sense. With this law, their desires are generously met. The written exam is abolished. A friendly buzz with a half-politically composed Supreme Council should suffice. It is really disheartening that after the arbitration court’s ruling you dare to imagine something like this, that you simply banalize access to the third power. That is where it comes down. Their

The new magistrates will have to spend the rest of their professional life writing judgments and judgments, but it has apparently been demanded too much for them to provide evidence once in their lifetime that they would really be able to do so. Even the suggestion of a customized exam, separate from the exams of the other lawyers, the lawyers who still have little battle experience, even that was indisputable. Every written trial was and is for the Socialist Party simply out of evil. On the contrary, the competence of these candidates must be automatically assumed. It simply cannot be doubted. Just as with the Fast-Belg Act, the integration readiness of the aspiring Belgians should not be questioned, it must be accepted that all these lawyers are competent to write unfathomable judgments. Anyone who would think that among these ladies and gentlemen can be people who are not good lawyers and therefore candidate-magistrates, who do not earn their bread, for example in the legal profession, who are incompetent or exhausted, all those who dare to say such a thing is bad faith. It fuels the debate.

Colleagues, the consequences of this law can hardly be underestimated because even more than before, the population will look at the appointment procedure for magistrates with suspicion. If the submissions are no longer made according to reliable, objective and therefore well-comparable criteria, on what basis do they take place? The appearance of depolitization that has been built up in recent years is once again undermined by this new law.

Thus, the government parties prove to the magistracy and the public’s trust in the magistracy a tremendously bad service. More than ever, you are giving the Supreme Council, which is largely politically composed, the opportunity to make proposals according to ideological criteria to ensure that in all courts and courts the main guideline would be the maintenance of traditional political balances.

In a recent colloquium on the functioning of the High Council, Professor Emeritus Marcel Storme advocated for a much greater objectivation of the appointment policy and for a much more transparent decision making, for example from the publication of the criteria used in the many proposals. Instead of more transparency, a big step back is taken and we now get less transparency. We now have a High Council that enters into an atmosphere of arbitrariness, friendship and interest advocacy, all matters that are ⁇ good for the PS and that characterize the PS ⁇ strikingly. The MR, the VLD and the sp.a-spirit know very well what is at stake, but they are too afraid and too weak to say no. They are too cowardly to cope with the omnipotence of the PS.