In Ninove in East Flanders, opposition party Groen is filing a complaint with the Flemish authorities after the city decided that non-Belgians must pay more to apply for a passport. From next year, applications by non-Belgians will cost more than twice as much in Ninove. According to the Flemish ecologist party Groen, this measure is discriminatory.
Green Party lodges complaint after Ninove ups price of passports for non-Belgians
Colin Clapson
Published:
Belgian municipal authorities can issue travel documents to non-Belgians without a passport, stateless persons and refugees.
After filing an official complaint with the provincial governor, Groen that sits on the opposition benches on Ninove city council is now also taking the matter to the Flemish Home Governance Agency. If the Flemish home minister rules that the complaint can be examined, unlike the governor, the minister can decide to annul the measure.
“Procedure requiring more investigation”
The city authorities defended the change by referring to the extra high costs that issuing passports for non-Belgians is said to entail. ‘Such procedures require more investigation and therefore cost us more,’ explained alderwoman Malika Sclacmender (Forza Ninove).
Green councillor Jordy Dobbeleer disagrees with this reasoning and calls the increase a clear political choice. ‘It is discriminatory to apply different rates for the same action because the applicant has a different status, purely because the civil servant has to tick a different box.’
Production costs and administrative procedures
‘The price of a document is the sum of the production costs and the administrative procedures. Since these procedures are the same for every citizen, the price should also be identical. It does not matter what the status is of the citizen standing in front of you, the price must be the same. If we start charging more money based on a particular status, then we are on the wrong track’ says Dobbeleer.
The Home Governance Agency must now declare the complaint admissible or not. It is not known when it will rule on a possible annulment.