Belgium’s official journal, Le Moniteur belge, ended 2016, the 186th year of its publication, on a total of 92,250 pages, the Justice Ministry reported on Friday. This was 10.250 pages more than in 2015, but below the record of 107,270 set in 2014, the Ministry stated. Le Moniteur belge- in English The Belgian Monitor - publishes all new royal decrees, laws and ordinances, and all official texts issued by the country’s governments and parliaments. Since 2003, it is published only electronically, but all Belgians are expected to be aware of its content. The years 2013 – which totalled 104,172 pages – and 2014 were also peak years for the publication: it topped the 100,000-page mark in both years.
The increase in 2015 was due mainly to the publication of an international treaty with Moldava, which required 3,754 pages, and of the governance modalities for the various public bodies, which took up more than 2,500 pages.
“There is no link between the thickness of The Monitor and any additional administrative fees for businesses or citizens,” the Justice Ministry noted, explaining, for example, that to scrap a law, a legislative text abolishing it also needs to be published and that an increasing number of the gazette’s documents are also published in German.
(Source: Belga)
