Voting rights in the election of the councils for the Public Social Welfare Centre (CPAS) should be extended to non-Belgian EU citizens, according to the Flemish Minister of the Interior Hilde Crevits.
The CPAS is a public institution, present in different Belgian municipalities, which provides social services to citizens. Currently, the CPAS councils are elected directly through a separate vote which does not include non-Belgian residents from other EU countries.
Crevits (CD&V) announced on Tuesday in the Flemish Parliament that she would write to federal formator Bart de Wever (N-VA) requesting for the right to be granted.
A Council of State opinion had indicated that the regulation of this decree was of the competence of the federal government, as addressing it at a regional level would conflict with Article 8 of the Constitution.
