Proposition 52K0278

Projet de loi fixant le contingent de l'armée pour l'année 2008.

General information ¶

Submitted by

PS | SP MR Open Vld Vooruit Purple Ⅰ

Submission date

Oct. 25, 2007

Official page

Visit

Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

armed forces

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

CD&V Vooruit LE PS | SP Open Vld N-VA LDD MR FN VB

Abstained from voting

Groen Ecolo

Contact form ¶

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Discussion ¶

Nov. 29, 2007 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

As the President said, at the beginning of this meeting we decided to put this point on the agenda today. This was unanimously approved yesterday in the National Defence Committee. I was therefore asked to give a verbal report on the draft law establishing the military contingent for the year 2008. According to Article 183 of the Constitution, it is a prerogative of the Parliament to discuss it annually.

During the discussion of the bill, the Minister of Land Defense explained that the military contingent expresses the maximum number of soldiers that may be under arms simultaneously on the same day of the year. For 2008, this figure is 39.961 which will be reached in the course of the month of January.

That 39.961 consists of 39.261 military personnel from the active framework and 700 recalled military personnel. If I go a little further into the numbers, one should divide those 39,261 into 38,553 active military and schoolchildren who are in charge of the Defense budget and 708 military who are in charge of other tasks, such as issuing identity cards or the military who are present here in the Palace of Nations or at the Parliaments of the Regions and the Communities.

Furthermore, it should be emphasized that it is not possible to compare this draft law on the military contingent with the law of 25 May 2000 fixing the envelope for military personnel. In the bill itself there is another table with the upcoming evolution.

Now to the general discussion. During the general discussion, there were two presentations, namely by Mr. Sevenhans and Mr. Bellot. Mr. Sevenhans asked about the affordability of this effective framework and Mr. Bellot spoke about whether or not compliance with and relation to the law of 25 May. These two questions were answered by Lieutenant-General Somers, Director-General of Human Resources. He confirmed that the payment can be provided securely and firmly and that the law of 2000 gives a better picture. He also emphasized that the number of 39.961 is a maximum number, which was not the case before.

Finally, we went to the article discussion and the voting. In the article-based discussion, there were 10 votes in favour of 1 abstinence, as in the vote on the whole. The abstinence was made by Ms. Boulet and was motivated by the uncertainty regarding the financial situation of the department. The entire bill was then adopted with 10 votes in favor and 1 abstinence.

Until then my report.