This Monday, May 11 marks a new phase in the deconfinement of Belgium: some stores – including clothing – may reopen after weeks of closure. A strongly supervised reopening, to enforce social distancing measures.
Directives were thus sent to the mayors … But too late, according to four of them, who send a letter to Pieter De Crem, the Minister of the Interior. They ask for a delay in the application of these.
Maxime Prévot (Namur), Philippe Close (Brussels-City), Willy Demeyer (Liège) and Paul Magnette (Charleroi) note that “each city, in agreement with local stakeholders (merchant associations, shopping center management cells, mobility cells, police zone, etc.) has already taken care to take all the necessary measures“to ensure health security when shops are reopened.
Particularly complex
“In view of this, your letter, which we regret was not the subject of any consultation with the local authorities directly concerned, arrives very late and disturbs this meticulously established organization […] It turns out that several of your prescriptions, established in general terms – which is perfectly indicated at the level of principles – but abstract collide with the reality on the ground and struggle to integrate the concrete constraints of local action. In addition, several of them prove to be particularly complex to implement, in particular those relating to the distance between parking spaces.“, they regret.
►►► AT read also: New phase of deconfinement in Belgium: social contacts, shops, sport … Here are the new measures
The four mayors therefore request a deadline for the application of these measures. “Given this and the more than late arrival of federal instructions, we wish to benefit from time, at least until the next weekend, in order to implement the systems established by the cities, perfectly in the spirit of the directives of the National Security Council, evaluate their effectiveness and, in the light of this experience, proceed if necessary to their adaptation, via the full implementation of the directives formulated in the ministerial letter“.
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