The applicants regret that the closure of the hospitality industry “announced at the time in order to control the second wave, has since been extended month by month, without any justification being provided”.
VSworrying-two restaurateurs from Wallonia and Brussels are suing the Belgian state in order to obtain the right to reopen their establishment, closed since October due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The applicants regret that the closure of the hospitality industry “announced at the time in order to control the second wave, has since been extended month by month, without any justification being provided”, they argue in a press release on Tuesday. .
At the beginning of March, the Concertation Committee announced that restaurants could reopen no earlier than May 1, only if the health situation permitted.
“The action brought by my clients is based on a double observation,” explains their lawyer, Me Audrey Despontin. “On the one hand, the legality of the measures is questioned by the most eminent constitutional experts in the country as well as by certain court decisions (…). On the other hand, there is the question of the proportionality of this measure. It has never been demonstrated that the protocols put in place during the summer of 2020 would not allow the immediate opening of restaurants. The measures, which have remained the same for months while the health situation has evolved, therefore appear disproportionate, ”she argues.
The case was brought before the French-speaking court of first instance in Brussels on March 12 and will be pleaded on April 21.