NEWS
Annullment of the nomination of the Curator of Rare Books at the Royal Library of Belgium
The Council of State has annulled both the decisions of the jury of the Royal Library and the nomination of the laureate. The Council of State stumbles over the fact that the jury did not really give a thorough justification for its decision to select the laureate. “That justification is brief and cannot convince,” the judgment states. An objective and fact-based comparison of the candidates is lacking (p. 37, §41). Such a comparison could possibly also be implicit in the reasoning, but even that is not the case here, the Council ruled.
- Friday 13 January 2023
The weekly Knack publishes a follow-up article on its website to announce the annulment. Follow this link: https://www.knack.be/nieuws/belgie/justitie/koninklijke-bibliotheek-ongemotiveerde-topbenoeming-vernietigd/
- 8 December 2022
The Council of State publishes a judgment (Arrest) annulling both the decision of the jury and the nomination by the Secretary of State of Curator of Rare Books at Royal Library of Belgium. Follow this link to read the judgment: http://www.raadvanstate.be/Arresten/255000/200/255212.pdf or consult it under the tab "Documents".
- 16 June 2021
The weekly Knack publishes a two-page article discussing this case. One week later, the director at interim of the Royal Library of Belgium publishes a right to reply stating that the article only contains "gratuitous claims".
- 8 June 2021
A complained is filed at the Disciplinary Committee at the university where one of the members of the jury is affiliated. The committee answers that it will wait for the judgement by the Council of State before it will deal with this complaint.
- 20 May 2021
For the second time, the Commission on Access to the Use and Re-use of Governance Documents rules in our favour, stating that the arguments of Belspo not to give access to the requested documents, are void.
- 18 May 2021
My lawyers file a request to annull the nomination by the Secretary of State of dr. Jan Pauwels as Curator at Royal Library of Belgium.
- 30 April 2021
Because Belspo still has not given access to a number of relevant documents requested earlier, my lawyers file a second complaint at the Commission on Access to the Use and Re-use of Governance Documents.
- 4 March 2021
The Secretary of State decides to ignore our petition of 19 January 2021 to annul the decisions of the jury and nominates the laureate as the new Curator of Rare Books at Royal Library of Belgium.
- 19 January 2021
My lawyers filed a petition at the Council of State to annul the decisions of the jury. The Secretary of State is informed about this legal action by registered letter.
- 19 January 2021
To this date, more than 100 different people from Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Poland, Italy, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Switzerland, Norway and the USA have expressed their support; 60 of them have also contributed financially
- 12 January 2021
Belspo gives access to a number of the requested documents, but refuses under a different pretext than the first time to give access to some other crucial documents.
- 11 January 2021
The Federal Ombudsman declares two complaints against Belspo admissible
Thank you for your attention!
Dr. Joran Proot