© Belga
The Belgian State has been ordered to lift "all coronavirus measures" within 30 days, as the legal basis for them is insufficient, a Brussels court ruled on Wednesday.
The League for Human Rights had filed the lawsuit several weeks ago and challenged Belgium's system of implementing the measures using Ministerial Decrees, which means it is done without any input from parliament.
The judge gave the Belgian State 30 days to provide a sound legal basis, or face a penalty of €5,000 per day that this period is exceeded, with a maximum limit of €200,000, reports Le Soir.
The current coronavirus measures are based on the Civil Safety Act of 2007, which enable the State to react quickly in "exceptional circumstances," but the judge has now ruled that these laws cannot serve as a basis for the Ministerial Decrees.
"The judge ruled that the principle of legality has been violated because the current way of working is not foreseeable enough," Kati Verstrepen of the Human Rights League confirmed to VRT, adding the consequences are "not so dramatic" that from one day to the next, the measures would no longer be valid.For the time being, the current coronavirus measures will not change, and the verdict is currently being studied by the office of Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden, reports
De Standaard.Appealing against the court ruling is still possible, but as it concerns a summary judgment, an appeal would not suspend the execution of the judgment.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Chamber will debate Belgium's upcoming pandemic law, which is supposed to provide "a permanent legal basis, for taking this kind of restrictive measures during a pandemic."Several legal
experts already pressed the Belgian State to bring forward the law as soon as possible to avoid judges cancelling fines written out for violations of the measures, and this ruling only increases the pressure to quickly adopt it.
Comment: ... and there's something similar happening in Finland.
From Reuters:
The Finnish government is holding talks about how to restrict the spread of COVID-19, Prime Minister Sanna Marin tweeted on Wednesday after withdrawing a lockdown proposal from parliament.
The proposal to largely confine people to their own homes in areas with most infections was deemed too imprecise by the constitutional law committee of parliament.
"It would be impossible for residents to predict what is prohibited, allowed or punishable," committee chairperson Antti Rinne said, but acknowledged that the arguments for more restrictions were justified.
Last week the government proposed locking down residents of five cities, including the capital Helsinki, and only allowing people to leave their homes for limited reasons, to curb rising coronavirus infections and hospitalisations.
The committee said the wide-ranging proposal should be changed to targeted restrictions for where the risk of contracting the virus was significant, such as private gatherings and crowded places such as shops.
The Nordic nation of 5.5 million people has recorded 77,452 coronavirus infections and 844 deaths. It has been praised for its handling of the pandemic and has been among the least-affected countries in Europe. It has 295 people in hospital with COVID-19.
But France has joined other European nations in going back into lockdown to try to halt a "spike".
From RT:
From Saturday, France will widen regional lockdown measures to the entire country in a bid to halt rising Covid-19 infections, President Emmanuel Macron has said, while defending his government's approach to tackling the virus.
All face-to-face teaching in schools will be suspended from Monday for a week ahead of the two-week spring break, with schools set to return on April 26, Macron announced, in a televised national address on Wednesday evening.
The tougher lockdown measures, which had been in place in 19 areas including Paris, will now be extended to the whole of France for four weeks.
From Saturday evening, travel for the entire population will be limited to within a 10-kilometer radius of home, while longer essential journeys will require a certificate.
Similarly in Germany (
from RT):
The German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI) has called on the government to urgently implement a two-week Covid-19 lockdown, as the country's health systems risk hitting capacity.
Speaking to the Rheinische Post, the scientific head of the DIVI, Christian Karagiannidis, warned that if the current rate of admission to intensive care units continues, Germany "will reach the regular capacity limit in less than four weeks."
We are not overexaggerating. Our warnings are driven by the figures.
Alongside the DIVI's demand for at least a two-week lockdown, Karagiannidis called on the government to introduce compulsory coronavirus tests in schools twice a week, and speed up the vaccine rollout in vaccination centers and GP practices.
The DIVI's call comes after Bavarian Health Minister Klaus Holetschek told German TV that his region would consider compulsory testing after not enough school students and teachers got voluntarily tested.
The federal German government has been coming under increasing pressure to take steps to speed up the vaccine rollout and take stricter measures to contain the virus as infection rates continue to rise.
With Germany being part of the European Union's vaccine rollout scheme, the country has suffered from the delays the bloc has experienced despite having domestically developed the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Comment: ... and there's something similar happening in Finland. From Reuters: But France has joined other European nations in going back into lockdown to try to halt a "spike". From RT: Similarly in Germany (from RT):