SECTION I. INTRODUCTION

614. BELGIUM – Contrary to the more general remarks in the previous Chapter, the recommendations made in this Chapter focus on Belgian law (see also no. 540). Some points might be relevant for the UK or third countries, but that will not be the case for all of the recommendations. Many of them depend upon the specificities of the Belgian legal system and are therefore difficult to generalise for other jurisdictions. The recommendations also build upon the Belgian legal system as it is at this moment in time. For the reasons mentioned above (see no. 109), abstraction will be made of possible future reforms of the Belgian system, including the new Criminal Code.

615. CRIMINAL LAW – As noted above (see no. 543), we do not recommend introducing administrative measures such as TPIMs in Belgium. Therefore, the recommendations will only cover criminal law. There is no need to introduce administrative measures in the Belgian system as Belgian criminal law is sufficiently equipped to deal with the issue and administrative measures tend to be difficult to reconcile with Article 5 ECHR.

616. THE NEED FOR REFORM – It is clear that the current Belgian criminal law framework to counter terrorism lacks coherence. It has been added to without first analysing whether the expansion of the offences was needed, and how new offences would fit into the framework.