Currently the petition has passed the 10% threshold. We’re at 2.541 signatures of 25.000 required. Yes, you too as a foreign national living & registered in Belgium you can sign this petition! Your registration card has a E-ID type chip on the backside! (You do need a smartcard reader).
You can find the link to the (Belgian) Defense Petition here (in Dutch).
I’ve made a simple yet complete video on how to sign this petition.
The idea behind this Citizen Initiative is to inverse our politician’s approach towards the Defense budget.
- Politicians will have to assume a 2% GPD military expenditure – a NATO norm – to start with. Due to the inversed approach politicians will no longer have to find arguments to explain a increase in the defense budget nor simply be able to state that there are insufficient financial means to increase the defense budget as an excuse.
- If politicians want to decrease defense spending below the 2% GPD norm then they will have to hold a public debate in the federal parliament using arguments that prove that Belgium is a reliable and loyal NATO and EU defense partner with a military capability equivalent to other partner countries similar as Belgium.
- I want to give the Direction Committee (Defense High Staff) the right (basically the duty) to introduce its own Defense budget proposal in case the Minister of Defense nor the federal government are willing to invest into the defense budget to remain a real reliable and loyal partner in the (military) security of Europe. Through this system the Chief of Defense will no longer have to plead for more Defense budget through the media but be able to ask Parliament directly.
If we take the 2% GDP norm as a reference then since the Summit fo Wales in 2014 (-2019) the Belgian government has underinvested a total of 24.6 billion €. According to the latest information Belgium’s Defence budget will reach a 1.3% GDP expenditure by 2030, despite having agreed to reach 2% by 2024.
It’s in the interest of our soldiers, police officer, anyone working in the security domain in Belgium ( or dependent there of) that we reach the 25.000 signature goal. The Belgian Federal Parliament has to take over the initiative and respond, aside listen to the petitioner if we reach this goal.
I am asking you to sign this petition and to propagate it. Yes, signing the petition is not easy. You have to register using the French or Dutch language website, treat the registration confirmation mail and then sign in again using E-ID to sign the petition. I have contact Parliament requesting to ease the signature procedure and make it more client friendly and be available in more languages (German and English).
I’ve made a simple yet complete video on how to sign this petition.
Bare in mind that your registration card has its E-ID chip on the backside when you introduce it into your smartcard reader. Do not use Microsoft Internet Explorer as it is no longer supported.