Vlaams Belang has submitted a bill to the House to abolish the additional number plates ‘Hof’, ‘A’, ‘E’ and ‘P’. “Special additional license plates for so-called dignitaries are simply outdated,” says party chairman Tom van Grieken. According to him, a rotating system, as N-VA Member of Parliament Michael Freilich demonstrated on Monday, is prohibited, but the latter “emphatically denies” this.
A system such as that of Freilich “is obviously prohibited since the Royal Decree clearly states that ‘the holder of a double registration chooses which of the two number plates he attaches to his vehicle’”, said the Vlaams Belang chairman.
LOOK. Freilich shows how his rotating license plate works exactly.
“It does not say that one has to choose once and then cannot change it,” Freilich said in a response to HLN. The Member of Parliament also says that he has asked a police judge, traffic institute VIAS and mobility experts for advice and they saw no problem with the rotating number plate.
Types of ‘additional’ license plates
• ‘Court’: contain only a number and are for the members of the Royal House
• ‘A’: including President of the Chamber, members of the federal government, representatives of the High Magistracy and provincial governors
• ‘P’: presidents and members of the various Belgian parliaments and Belgian members of the European Parliament
• ‘E’: presidents, members or departments of the community and regional governments
• ‘CD’: diplomatic personnel
Eliminate ‘additional’ license plates?
For Van Grieken, the ‘additional’ plates are of no use whatsoever, and only lead to “unnecessary profiling and widen the gap with the citizen”.
Freilich explains that the number plates for members of parliament are indeed useful. For example, they are used to identify parliamentarians when they want to enter the parking lot of the Chamber. They also help the police during demonstrations to identify possible targets or are needed to pick up high-ranking guests from abroad after their arrival at Brussels Airport.
“I think it’s good that the debate is being opened about the usefulness of such a parliamentary record. In itself, I personally have no problem with that if it is abolished,” says Freilich. Then another system must be developed for him with which members of parliament can identify themselves where necessary. “But if it disappears, I’m not going to shed a tear.”
Read also:
N-VA Member of Parliament Michael Freilich installs rotating number plate on car: “Don’t want to become a target of aggression with a P plate”
Are Flemish ministers’ service cars too expensive? “Mobile office that covers 100,000 kilometers per year, that is not possible with 2 hp” (+)
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