Proposition de résolution concernant la non-application de la législation linguistique dans les administrations locales de la Région de Bruxelles-Capitale.
General information ¶
- Authors
- VB Filip Dewinter, Barbara Pas, Jan Penris
- Submission date
- Feb. 23, 2016
- Official page
- Visit
- Subjects
- Brussels region local authority resolution of parliament civil service use of languages
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Discussion ¶
Oct. 26, 2017 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)
Full source
Barbara Pas VB ⚙
Mr. Speaker, colleagues, the draft resolution concerns the language legislation which is in no way complied with by the local authorities in the Brussels Capital Region, with all the dramatic consequences for the Dutch speakers. There is virtually no bilinguality of services in Brussels.
I assume that you, as good colleagues, have read the draft resolution thoroughly, but this does not escape the numbers I would like to give you. When I compiled the resolution, the latest figures were not yet available. As you know, the situation is also worsening year after year.
The 2016 figures in the latest annual report of the Deputy Governor of Brussels Hoofdstad on the non-application of the language legislation in the Brussels municipalities and OCMWs speak for themselves: 32.8% of the appointments and advancements in the Brussels municipalities took place in accordance with the language law. Of the 1,338 files inspected by the deputy governor, no less than 899 were not in accordance with the language law. In the OCMWs, the situation is even more dramatic: in 2006 11 % of the files were in order. Of the 991 files, 882 were not found in order by the deputy governor.
It is very worrying to see that this virus to violate the language law has now also affected the statutory appointments. Until a few years ago, the statutory relations were still somewhat exempt from language law violations, but in the meantime this is no longer the case. In 2016, 26% of the statutory relations on the French-speaking side were illegal in the municipalities and 16% in the OCMWs. As always, the supervisory body of the Brussels government, the College of the Joint Community Commission, is not at home when it comes to destroying all those appointments suspended by the Governor. However, the Brussels government knows very well that it is legally obliged to destroy. The Deputy Governor stated in his report that he was aware of ⁇ 0 destroyed illegal appointments. Therefore, we can assume with confidence that of the 1,781 files suspended, none was destroyed by the supervisory authority.
My limited speech time saves you from listening to me also to summarize the figures on language parity, both for the higher and the lower relations, all, but believe me freely that also there the situation decreases linearly every year.
As long as the situation continues to deteriorate, I repeat this question every year to the Minister of Internal Affairs. I ask him every year to do something about it. I get the same answer every year, namely that he is not responsible for it, that it is a Brussels affair. I speak that every year against and this year I am involved in it by the Standing Committee for Language Supervision, which in its opinion on the bill proposal of colleague Vuye confirms that the federal government is indeed competent to intervene if the controls are not carried out as prescribed.
In my proposal for a resolution, I will include a number of suggestions that the government should include in its legislative initiative.
That legislative initiative should, as regards the application of language legislation in administrative matters, first and foremost remove the supervision of local governments from the Brussels Regional Supervisory Authority or at least develop a system that can effectively sanction Brussels governments who do not comply with the Language Act in administrative matters.
Second, the Minister of Internal Affairs could extend the powers of the Deputy Governor and give him, in addition to the suspension power, also the destruction power. He could completely remove the deputy governor from the authority of the Brussels regional authorities by making him again an integral federal official under the authority of the Minister of Internal Affairs.
Colleagues, the Minister clearly needs the draft resolution, this squeeze in the back, because he verticates it even to do the minimum minimum, namely: schedule the dossier at the Consultation Committee. It is merely about effectively enforcing the application of existing legislation. To anyone who would be concerned that he or she would break through the community omerta, if one supports my proposal, I say not to be concerned. My proposal for a resolution falls entirely within the Community standstill. On the contrary, if you do not vote in favour of the resolution, you are continuing the further decline of the community, as it has been going on for years.
I count on the support of all of you.