Belgium's Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden has proposed that a paying police force be made available for major events, but her proposal is already being opposed by the country’s festival sector, Knack reports.
This change would result in organisers being partly responsible for their events’ security costs by paying for a police force, which Verlinden argued would kill two birds with one stone: firstly, police presence at sporting events and music festivals was costly for the country’s taxpayers and secondly, it put a lot of pressure on police whose “means are limited at the moment."
Especially at professional football matches, police presence cost about €11 million per year, she stressed. These added expenses are due to the fact that the events are occurring in the evening and on the weekend, meaning that most officers work overtime – which has to be accounted for in terms of pay.
By "daring to think about a paying police," Verlinden also wants to relieve the pressure put on police.
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However, her proposal was not greeted warmly by event organisers: this "will be the end of many festivals," Serge Platel, director of the Federation of Music Festivals in Flanders’ (FMiV), told Knack. He argued that “nine in ten festivals are run by volunteers and do not make huge profits.”
Festivals' finances had already been put to the sword by the Covid-19 pandemic before recovering somewhat last summer, but "once we have to add these costs" proposed by Verlinden, their livelihoods would once again be threatened.
Additionally, Platel explained that most festivals already employed private security companies at their events, despite "the authorities having the responsibility of maintaining public order."
