4 bis

<Introduced by L 1994-07-12/31, art. 2> § 1. The Commission of control is bound to control all communications and information campaigns, irrespective of the media support, of the Federal Government or one or several of its members, of the Community or Regional Government or one or several of its members, of the bodies specified at article 60 of the special law of January 12, 1989 related to Bruxelles institutions or one or several of its members, of one or several Regional State secretaries specified at article 41 of the same special law, of the presidents of Federal Chambers, of presidents (of Community or Regional Parliaments) as well as of the presidents of the reunited assembly and linguistic groups specified at article 60 of the special law of January 12, 1989 related to Bruxelles institutions, intended for the public, to which they are not bound based upon any legal or administrative provision and that are directly or indirectly financed by public funds. <L 2007-03-23/31, art. 4, 009; Effective with: 28-03-2007>
§ 2. Federal Government or one or several of its members, Community or Regional Governments or one or several of its members, the bodies specified at article 60 of the special law of January 12, 1989 related to Bruxelles institutions or one or several of its members, one or several Regional State secretaries specified at article 41 of the same special law, the presidents of the Federal Chambers, the presidents (of the Community or Regional Parliament) as well as the presidents of the reunited assembly and linguistic groups specified at article 60 of the special law of January 12, 1989 related to Bruxelles institutions intending to release a communication or information campaign as per § 1 shall submit, prior to the distribution, a summary note to the Commission of control. <L 2007-03-23/31, art. 4, 009; Effective with: 28-03-2007>
This note reviews the content and reasons of the communication or information campaign, methods used, the total cost and the consulting companies.
Within fifteen days after submission of the summary note, the Commission of control gives a non-binding notice.
The notice is negative in case the specific communication or campaign intends, totally or partially, promoting the personal image of one or several members of the institutions specified at § 1 or of the image of a political party.
If the Commission fails to give a notice within fifteen days, the notice is considered positive.
§ 3. Within fifteen days after publication or distribution of the communication or information campaign, upon request of any third party of the members within each linguistic group, the Commission of control becomes informed of the file for which the negative notice has been given.
The Commission becomes also informed based upon the same procedure in case the content of the communication or information campaign presented in the summary note has been modified.
§ 4. If the communication or information campaign intends promoting the personal image of one or several members of the Federal Government, one or several members of the Community or Regional Governments, one or several members of the bodies specified at article 60 of the special law of January 12, 1989 related to Bruxelles institutions, one or several Regional State secretaries specified at article 41 of the same special law, of the presidents of the Federal Chambers, of the presidents (of Community or Regional Parliaments) or of the presidents of the reunited assembly and linguistic groups specified at article 60 of the special law of January 12, 1989 related to Bruxelles institutions or the image of a political party, the Commission shall impute the expenses with this communication or campaign to the election expenses of the involved parties during the following elections to which they participate. <L 2007-03-23/31, art. 4, 009; Effective with: 28-03-2007>
If the notice given by the Commission of control as specified in this article is not requested, the communication or campaign costs shall be imputed, by rights, to the election expenses of the involved parties during the following elections to which they participate. For that purpose, the Commission of control is informed ex officio.
The justified decision given by the Commission is awarded during the month following the submission, according to the provisions set forth by the rights of defence.
The decision of the Commission of control is made by simple majority within each linguistic group.
This decision is notified to the involved parties within the following seven days.
The decision is published in the Belgian Official Gazette.