At least twelve Belgian honorary consuls are believed to be involved in unsavoury practices research undertaken by journalists on dailies Le Soir and De Tijd and weekly Knack have discovered.
The Belgian figure is the result of an international investigation conducted by 160 journalists in 46 countries. The research suggests over 500 honorary consuls worldwide can be implicated in fraud, corruption, terrorism and drug and weapons trafficking.
Belgium boasts 276 honorary consuls in 111 countries. They are diplomats, who like ambassadors are appointed to defend the interests of the country. Many consuls are rich businessmen of a certain age. As part of the international investigation “Shadow Diplomats” the Belgian journalists screened all Belgian honorary consuls for the first time.
Honorary consuls possess fewer powers than ambassadors and are not paid. They are not part of the government apparatus but do fall under the responsibility of the country that appointed them.
De Tijd’s Lars Bové told VRT: “Also in Belgium a smokescreen surrounds the honorary consuls that usually do not possess Belgian nationality. Some have never visited and don’t speak any of our national languages. The Belgian foreign ministry hardly ever communicates about how they are selected, what their background is and what they are allowed to do. This throws up many questions, doesn’t it?”
41 Belgian honorary consuls are lawyers. Many of the others are businessmen. The journalists failed to unearth any information about what 43 of the honorary consuls do or are.
“We discovered that twelve Belgian honorary consuls are involved in unsavoury practices” explains Bové.
“There’s an honorary consul in Poland implicated in a major fraud case. He was relieved of his duties in 2018 but there are several other honorary consuls that feature in tax scandals or who as a businessmen are involved in illegal timber felling. Things like this were not always reason enough to relieve them of their duties”.
A procedure exists allowing an appointment as honorary consul to be stopped in the event of malpractices. “Introduced in 2016 it has only been used twice. Before that honorary consuls who were implicated in dodgy dealings were dismissed with full honours” says Bové.
The investigation revealed that often the title of honorary consul is transferred to children. “In one in ten cases the title is transferred from father to son. Often rich, elderly businessmen with large networks qualify and that can throw up questions. You can wonder if Belgium’s foreign ministry sufficiently screens these people or whether a more transparent procedure is needed”.