Classified documents from future parliamentary inquiry committees can, in principle, be declassified after 50 years following a decision by the House of Representatives.
Thursday's plenary session approved two proposals from House Speaker Peter De Roover of the Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie (N-VA) party.
The first proposal confirms that no judge can seize any document or minutes from a closed meeting of a parliamentary inquiry committee.
This proposal was prompted by an incident in January 2022, when an investigating judge conducted searches in parliament to seize documents from the parliamentary inquiry into the Lumumba Commission. The judge intended to use the documents for a legal investigation into the 1961 murder of Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba.
After the searches, parliament sought to annul the confiscation. However, the indictment chamber rejected its request. The newly approved interpretative law now legally anchors parliament’s position in the Lumumba case, affirming the lawmakers' original intentions.
The second proposal introduces a legal mechanism for the declassification of secret documents. It stipulates that classified information from future parliamentary inquiries will lose its confidential status after 50 years.
“Through these proposals, we are providing clarity and balance: on the one hand, safeguarding the confidential nature essential to parliamentary investigations, and on the other hand, ensuring that secret documents won’t remain locked away forever,” House Speaker De Roover explained.
