The Flemish Bar Council is going to the Constitutional Court against the Flemish decree of Minister Zuhal Demir that makes it more difficult to contest a license in court. That reports ‘De Standaard’.
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Today, anyone who wants to contest a permit for, say, an apartment building in the area that blocks the sunlight, must first submit an administrative appeal to the provincial deputation. Anyone who is not proved right can still contest the license with a judge of the Council for license disputes.
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However, due to a decree that the Flemish Parliament approved this spring, you must already put all possible arguments on the table with the municipality or deputation. No new arguments can be invoked at the Council for license disputes. “This duty of attention aims to punish citizens if they ‘apparently’ fail to report illegalities in a timely manner,” says Advocaat.be.
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ill will
The regulation is intended to counteract procedural layers of ill will, in which new arguments are repeatedly put on the table. But this is met with a lot of resistance. Some environmental organizations have already gone to the Constitutional Court because they see a curtailment of the rights of citizens in the decree. Now lawyer.be is also doing this because the decree leaves a lot of uncertainty, including about what ‘apparent omission’ entails.
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“In many cases, the decree denies people proper access to the courts. If they do not submit an argument against an environmental permit in time, they may not be able to have it assessed by an independent judge later,” said spokeswoman Sofie Demeyer. “This touches our heart, because we oppose barriers that make access to justice more difficult. So we are going to the Constitutional Court to overturn this new regulation.”
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