Proposition 54K2097

Projet de loi modifiant la loi du 14 mars 1968 abrogeant les lois relatives aux taxes de séjour des étrangers, coordonnées le 12 octobre 1953.

General information ¶

Submitted by

MR Swedish coalition

Submission date

Oct. 20, 2016

Official page

Visit

Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

foreign national municipality identity document local tax residence permit rights of aliens

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

CD&V ∉ Open Vld N-VA LDD MR PP

Voted to reject

LE PS | SP DéFI PVDA | PTB

Abstained from voting

Groen Vooruit Ecolo VB

Party dissidents ¶

• Olivier Maingain (MR) voted to reject.

Contact form ¶

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Discussion ¶

Nov. 23, 2016 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

I would like to refer again to the written report.

Mr. Speaker, I will try to be brief because the previous bill has led to discussions three times longer in plenary session than in committee. It becomes usual.

On the draft proposed on the table, I would say that on the bottom, I understand the goal politically well. First, we try to demonstrate that foreigners are expensive and, secondly, we show citizens that we pay for more expensive services to discourage these people from coming to us. We are in the same political line as the one that caused the increase in file fees for people who want to enter our territory.

In the explanation of the reasons, you refer to a study discussed in a committee, which was conducted by the Agency for Administrative Simplification, to justify that the instruction of applications for residence permits by persons of foreign origin costs more than those introduced by European or Belgian citizens. When this was discussed in the committee, this study was not available. We were able to find out about it via the Commission’s intranet in its Dutch version. It has not been translated, it is already a problem.

In addition, you say that there are often appeals to the State Council by associations and that these appeals never succeed. Here, this is already an opinion of the State Council and it already raises a number of problems. This opinion refers to the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and essentially raises two problems with regard to the cost of the identity card. For a non-European national, the Council of State states that this cost must not be disproportionate to the cost of a card issued for a Belgian or a citizen of the European Union. Now you say yourself, in the explanations of the reasons for your project, that this cost cannot be defined by yourself and that it will be settled by a royal decree.

You evacuate the problem raised by the State Council by sending it back to a royal decree that will be taken. But, in my opinion, the problem will also arise for the Royal Decree as well as for your bill.

You discuss in commission the cost that could be demanded for an identity card to a non-European citizen. You were up to 50 euros, if I have a good memory. You estimate that depending on the knowledge of the costs of the services generated by the instruction, the issuance of this card could go up to 50 euros. This shocked me a little. The cost of an electronic identity card requested by the Ministry of the Interior to the municipalities is now in the order of 17 euros. I have heard from Ben Weyts during the previous parliamentary period. Ben Weyts was a member of the N-VA Parliament. He came out in the press, I still have the articles, which he found scandalous that the price of identity cards is increased by one euro. And you, you find it normal that foreigners can be asked for 50 euros per ID card instead of 17 to 20 euros! Generally, there is still a wife and maybe one or two children. This is a significant budget.

The State Council also specifies that this cost must not exceed the financial capacity of the applicant. This is also a questionable question. How will you define this element? As with the element before, you will say that a royal decree will define it. Oh yeah yes! Well played ! So every time, you redirect all this to a royal decree, but, on the bottom, the opinion of the State Council remains. Defining the financial capacity of the applicant will also cause an overload of administrative work that will also generate costs, thus a surplus cost. You also go there alongside the goal that is to make a savings or to reduce the cost of instruction in the issuance of the document for municipalities.

Finally, what does this bill serve, apart from serving the political goal I described at the beginning of my speech? I am not convinced of what you are proposing.

You will find it very difficult to counter the remarks of the State Council. You will probably tell us soon how you are going to do it. In the committee, you did not. That is why I allowed myself to re-develop the argument already developed in the committee. I will not go much further and will not unnecessarily capture the microphone.

I would like to speak on behalf of Mrs Schepmans, who is held by her municipal council. Local democracy is important.

The amendment envisaged in this bill allows to fix the maximum amount of remuneration that communes can receive for the renewal, extension or replacement of residence permits. I would like to emphasize that the processing of these requests constitutes a considerable administrative burden for municipalities with a significant foreign population. Mr. Thiébaut is ⁇ less concerned in his municipality.

The bill examined this afternoon allows to take this cost into account and leaves each municipality the care to determine the amount that it will demand from the persons concerned. In addition, each municipality has the choice to introduce or not the proposed regulation. Each should judge according to its resources, financial possibilities or priorities. The difficulty is that it is often municipalities with few financial resources that have to process a large number of residence permits. Human and financial support to local authorities is therefore very positive.

The Royal Decree announced by the Secretary of State will also ensure that the financial capacity of each applicant is taken into account. Depending on this, the MR group will support the project.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Secretary of State, colleagues, the present bill should enable the municipalities to gain more financial strength, to cover the costs associated with the renewal, renewal or replacement of certain temporary residence cards for foreigners. This is specifically about the A-card.

In 2015, more than 40 000 people applied for a renewal of their temporary residence card, which is no less. The Service for Administrative Simplification or DAV has carried out a measurement. The measurement agency of the DAV has measured that the administrative burden for the municipalities between July 2015 and September 2015 in the administrative handling of this type of cards is much more complex than the renewal of the ordinary identity cards for the own citizens. It is therefore clear that this treatment is an additional workload for local governments.

Several municipalities, including my own town of Aalst, have opened a specific outsider lock, just to be able to work on those specific requests, in order to be able to handle them faster and better.

With the maximum remuneration that a municipality will now be allowed to collect, the municipality or city can cover the administrative costs incurred for the processing of those applications.

In determining that maximum amount, it is logical – it may also be – to ensure that it is a proportionate amount, which is not disproportionate to the remuneration that the government requires for the issuance of an identity card of its own nationals or of citizens of the European Union. It has also been ensured that the amount does not exceed the financial capacity of the applicant.

The principle of proportionality is therefore ⁇ guaranteed and observed in the case of the maximum amount, which should not be mandatory. Local governments are free to fill it themselves.

Consequently, the bill does not affect the autonomy of the municipalities, but only creates the choice for the municipalities to ask for the remuneration or not.

It is a good bill that gives local governments the freedom to collect the remuneration, of course with a proportionally established maximum.

Mr. Secretary of State, I think it is clear that our group will support the bill.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Secretary of State, colleagues, with the present bill, a compromise in the government agreement is implemented. I dare honestly admit that we are not a large petitioning party, but we eventually reached an agreement and today the bill is therefore on the vote. So we will approve the text later, because it is the implementation of the government agreement.

With the present text we only create the legal framework within which municipalities can but must not charge a remuneration, for the renewal, renewal or replacement of a particular residence permit.

The general lines of the measure, which will still be specifically elaborated in royal decrees, are clear: the municipalities can impose a maximum amount of 50 euros and that only once a year.

This means that municipal governments can decide to impose a lower amount or even not introduce any accommodation remuneration at all, because the soup is not worth the cabbage, because, for example, there are very few foreigners settling in the municipality.

We have always emphasized that a number of factors should be taken into account when determining the amount, which, by the way, are also included in the text. The amount must be proportionate and proportionate to the remuneration charged by the municipality for the renewal of identity cards. The amount must not exceed the financial capacity of the applicant. If foreigners can prove that the amount exceeds their capacity for some reason, they cannot be denied the residence permit.

We are therefore pleased that these principles were added to the memory of explanation. The text will soon be drawn up in royal decrees.

We also requested that the other remuneration we have already introduced be taken into account, namely the remuneration for the residence application, which is imposed once by DVZ.

It has been agreed – and thus we meet our proposal, which we welcome – that the remuneration will only apply to persons with a temporary residence permit, i.e. persons with A-cards. Furthermore, we insist that there is an exception for some groups. They need to be further determined, but we already thought of unaccompanied minors, victims of human trafficking, persons with a medical regularization and asylum seekers, categories which are also exempt from the remuneration for the residence application imposed by DVZ. We cannot decide on the exceptions ourselves in Parliament, but we would like to make suggestions regarding the target groups, Mr. Secretary of State. You have asked the State Council for an opinion on this matter. We will look at it when it is there. In any case, we are convinced that the listed groups should be exempted from the residence tax.

We will approve the present draft.

Mrs. Lanjri just made a very beautiful Freudian promise. “The bill is good,” she said. Maybe she did not mean that.

I will not repeat everything, but in the light of administrative simplification, we find it a missed chance that someone who has to go through a number of procedures to obtain a residence permit or an identity card here, among others, does not receive a global price, and then the money is distributed internally across the various relevant government levels.

There were some general comments. I think in the committee I have made clear that two important points will have to be branched through a KB. The first point relates to the exemptions, in respect of which the Council of State was asked for suggestions as to which categories would be best exempted under international law. The second point is a scheme for persons whose financial capacity is exceeded if this would be imposed. How exactly this will be defined must be specified in the KB. Negotiations on this are underway. This will be elaborated as soon as this bill becomes law and also effectively comes into force. Then the KB will follow. One follows the other, which is logical.

On the other hand, I can only say that what we propose here has been discussed for years. It began in Antwerp, where the ship college had proposed to introduce a municipal remuneration for foreigners cards. The provincial governor had said that such a thing could not be done, because the law had to be adjusted to do so. That is exactly what we want to do, to change the law. So I think we are taking a step ahead.

I think the municipal governments will introduce the remuneration massively. I think they will do so because they know perfectly well that there are indeed administrative costs associated with the renewal of foreigners’ cards, because this comes above the ordinary work. This is also clearly shown in this study. I can only say that the amount of 50 euros is the result of a DAV survey in the following cities and municipalities: Antwerp, Leuven, Genk, Gent, Elsene, Anderlecht, Schaarbeek, Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, Luik and Charleroi. A good balance has been found between cities and municipalities of all possible senses. This is a representative sample. That $50 won’t just fall out of the air. I think it is a reasonable amount that can be requested. Therefore, there is another KB with a scheme for the exemptions. The same KB includes a scheme for those for whom it is too expensive. In my opinion, this is only a limited group, which we will effectively exempt on the basis of certain criteria.

I hope we can move forward soon, Mr. Speaker. This is also important for the municipal budgets for 2017. I know a few city governments that are ⁇ asking party for this possibility. It is a matter of good governance that it is made clear to the municipalities that they must include this item in their accounts, as they can collect that amount from next year. Therefore, we need to work quickly.