BRUSSELS – Diplomats commit 30 times more traffic violations than normal citizens in Belgium and most of those caught do not pay the requisite fine, Belga news agency reported Thursday.

Daan Schalck, a member of the Belgian parliament, released the figures in a report and demanded that that Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel resolve the problem.

The report showed that vehicles issued to embassies were implicated in nine times more traffic infractions every year than those owned by private citizens.

In addition, every Belgian citizen was found to commit on average 0.3 infractions per year, 30 times less than the number of yearly infractions committed by diplomats on average.

Schalck called on authorities to sensitize ambassadors to the problem.

[Copyright Expatica 2004]

Subject : Belgian news