The Flemish government plans to integrate foreign residents into society via a voluntary and obligatory system of courses, inclusive fines.

The Flemish government gave definitive approval on 19 May 2006 to the proposed changes to its integration programme for foreign residents.

The definitive approval followed an initial decision on 3 February 2006 in favour of the draft changes to the integration programme established on 23 February 2003.

The main amendments that are foreseen can be summarised as follows:

• Except for non-Belgian EU citizens, new arrivals who wish to settle permanently in Flanders — even to join family — will be obligated to participate in an integration course. Expats visiting Belgium with a temporary work permit will not, in principle, have to participate in the programme.
• Certain categories of foreigners already living in Belgium — any person not born in Belgium and who has at least one parent born in a foreign country — will have a priority right to join the integration programme, although this is not compulsory.
• Unemployed foreigners who benefit from social security payments will be obliged to learn Dutch and will be assisted by the Flemish employment agency VDAB.
• The new decree will also introduce a system of fines. Those who do not comply with the requirement to participate in an integration programme or who fail to complete the integration programme will be subject to a fine ranging from EUR 50 to EUR 5,000.

The proposal will now be submitted to the Flemish Parliament. The new integration scheme is expected to come into force at the end of the year.

23 May 2006

Lawyers Matthias Lommers (lommersm@laga.be) and Kris Termonia (ktermonia@laga.be) work for Belgian law firm Laga. They are available via the main desk on ph: 02 800 7000.

Disclaimer: Although we verify the reliability of the information given, such information is general and neither Laga nor Expatica may be held responsible in any way for any possible error that might occur or for any use or interpretation that could be made of this information without the assistance of Laga.

[Copyright Laga and Expatica 2006]

Subject: Expat news