The Senate wishes to implement a working group to formulate recommendations, with a view to improving the quality of legislative drafting. As a cornerstone of state reform, these recomendations will apply to federal, regional and indeed EU law.
The resolution signed by the Flemish Christian Democrats, the MR (Liberals/Conservative Liberals), Open Vld (Open Flemish Liberals), the PS and the sp.a (Alternative Socialists) was approved by the institutional committee.
Only the New Flemish Alliance voted against the proposals.
Federated parties have increased their competencies in favour of the intended Sixth State Reform. They are hence in a position to alter an entire raft of existing legislation, which has already historically given rise to technical blunders.
The working group considering this issue will be presided over by the President of the Senate, Christine Defraigne (MR). It will be made up of collaborators from the legislative services of the various parliaments, the ministries of justice of the various federal and regional governments, the State Council and law faculties from Belgian universities.
Each political party will also delegate a member.
“This is a superfluous proposal which will add no value whatsoever,” the leader of the New Flemish Alliance, Annick De Ridder declared. The motives for this proposal appear to her to be very noble but the senator is concerned that this working group will transform into “idle talk behaving, metaphorically, as if the confused mother-in-law of federated entities!”
This will, potentially, be all the more the case since the State Council assists both federal and federated institutions.
The Brussels Times
