Proposition de loi modifiant l'arrêté royal du 23 mars 1998 relatif au permis de conduire en ce qui concerne l'emploi des langues au cours de l'examen de conduite.
Summary ¶
(From the official documents)
Pour l’heure, les candidats conducteurs qui ne maîtrisent ni le français, ni le néerlandais, ni l’allemand, peuvent présenter les épreuves théorique et pratique de l’examen de conduite avec l’aide d’un interprète.
La présente proposition de loi tend à supprimer cette possibilité.
General information ¶
- Authors
- VB Alexandra Colen, Annick Ponthier, Bruno Valkeniers, Tanguy Veys
- Submission date
- Dec. 16, 2010
- Official page
- Visit
- Status
- Rejected
- Requirement
- Simple
- Subjects
- driving licence use of languages driving instruction road traffic
Voting ¶
- Voted to adopt
- Groen CD&V Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP Open Vld MR
- Voted to reject
- N-VA VB
Party dissidents ¶
- Peter Luykx (CD&V) voted to reject.
Contact form ¶
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Discussion ¶
June 12, 2013 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)
Full source
Tanguy Veys VB ⚙
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Minister, Colleagues, first and foremost I would like to thank the absent rapporteur, Mr. Balcaen, for his sound report and for his willingness to report on this bill, which, unfortunately, did not reach the committee.
However, I hope to continue to convince the plenary session of the usefulness and necessity of the adoption of the present bill.
The concerns of this bill have been raised by a royal decree already in 1998 concerning the driving license. That Royal Decree stipulates that a candidate for a driving license who is not competent in French, Dutch, or German may take the theoretical examination, assisted by an interpreter.
There is even the possibility to organize theoretical exams in a language other than French, Dutch or German. The Royal Decree also provides the possibility of passing the practical driving exam with the assistance of an interpreter.
The present bill aims to criticize this Royal Decree because, in our view, passing the driving exam through an intermediary is incompatible with safety on public roads. An interpreter, then even assuming that he is in good faith and the candidate does not consciously or unconsciously assist in solving the questions, can give a good translation, but at the same time forget certain nuances, the context or important details or find themselves in the impossibility to convey them. The use of an interpreter therefore diminishes a good assessment of the candidate’s knowledge of the Road Code.
A final note, however, which is not less important, relates to Article 30 of the Constitution, which provides that derogations from the language legislation can only be introduced by law. In the present case, the derogation is regulated by a royal decree, which is therefore contrary to the Constitution. With this bill, we want to repair this.
During the discussion in the committee, among other things, the position of the Flemish government was pointed out. One might think that the Flemish government attaches importance to the fact that one would be able to pass the driving exam in one of the three national languages. However, the Flemish government did not accept this opinion. She strives for a simple language use in the theoretical and practical driving examination and considers that the instructions of the examiner are not of such nature that nuances or interpretations play a major role. I strongly dispute that.
With regard to the fact that the amendments to the language legislation are contrary to the Constitution, I would like to refer to the discussion in the committee. Apparently, the N-VA also has no problem with the fact that the language legislation was not respected, that that language law was amended by a royal decree and not by an ordinary law.
I was a little surprised at the voting behavior of the N-VA, which in other files has always raised itself, in my view, as a guardian of the language legislation. However, for the driving exam, this is apparently of no value.
Therefore, I ask that this bill still be approved, in order to fill a gap in our current legislation.