Schaarbeek’s municipal administration must comply with the language law

For seven years now, Schaarbeek’s administration has been led by a town clerk who lacks the required language skills. Brussels group leader Cieltje Van Achter and Flemish MP Annabel Tavernier, both from Schaarbeek, react with bewilderment and point to the guilty negligence of the Brussels government.

The decision to uphold language legislation lies with the government and the Minister in charge, Bernard Clerfayt (Défi). When David Neuprez, the Schaarbeek town clerk, was appointed in 2014, Bernard Clerfayt was the mayor of Schaarbeek.

Town clerk a “trainee” for seven years to circumvent language law

“I already complained about the appointment of the Schaarbeek town clerk in 2014,” Cieltje Van Achter said. “At the time, the deputy governor, who oversees compliance with language laws, had just suspended the appointment of the Schaarbeek town clerk. However, the government at that time ignored that suspension. It now appears that the man has for seven whole years been appointed as a ‘trainee’ and has still not achieved the required level of Dutch.”

Language legislation nothing more than a scrap of paper

“This is really incredible,” Annabel Tavernier commented. “This concerns a top official. The municipality of Schaarbeek employs about 1,250 workers and civil servants. They have been led by a man who speaks too little Dutch for seven years now, and he apparently does not see it as a problem at all. This underscores once again how important it is to uphold language legislation. The required language skills must already have been acquired at the time of appointment. Otherwise, it is clearly not going to happen. For the local authorities of Brussels, language legislation is nothing more than a scrap of paper.”

Compliance with language laws not a priority for Open Vld

“It is so simple, though,” Cieltje Van Achter adds. “If someone is appointed without being able to produce the required language qualifications, the deputy governor suspends that appointment. It is then up to the government to proceed to termination. The latter, however, never happens. In recent years, we have seen ever more violations of language laws and yet we have not seen any termination decisions by the government. Even Sven Gatz (Open VLD), who christened himself Minister of Multilingualism this legislature, does not make compliance with language legislation a priority.”