Members of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Belgian lower house of parliament called on the government to immediately start negotiations with the German authorities to solve the problem of payment of pensions by this country to those pensioners in Belgium, who collaborated with the Nazi government during the Second World War
BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th February, 2019) Members of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Belgian lower house of parliament called on the government to immediately start negotiations with the German authorities to solve the problem of payment of pensions by this country to those pensioners in Belgium, who collaborated with the Nazi government during the Second World War.The relevant resolution, initiated by opposition lawmakers, was unanimously supported by members of the parliamentary committee. The document, seen by a Sputnik correspondent, calls on the Belgian authorities "to clarify and seek the abolition of the pension plan provided to former Belgian military personnel of the German national socialist regime during the Second World War."
The fact that Belgian citizens, who fought on the side of Nazi Germany, receive military pensions in accordance with a decree of Adolf Hitler, who equated them to German citizens, became known 20 years ago. However, only today the problem has gone beyond the framework of public debate, gaining parliamentary support.
According to Alvin de Coninck, a researcher from Remembrance society, uniting former prisoners of Nazi concentration camps, Germany still pays military pensions to 27 collaborators from Belgium, without mentioning either their Names or the amount of pensions.
"The size of pensions varies from 425 to 1275 Euros [$486-1,460] per month. The years spent in the Belgian prison as a result of punishment for collaborationist activities are equated to the work experience. The more years of imprisonment, the higher the amount of compensation. However, the Belgians who were subjected to forced labor in Germany received only a one-time payment of 50 euros," de Coninck said, as quoted by De Morgen newspaper.
According to RTBF broadcaster, after the end of the war, 38,000 Belgians out of 80,000 convicted of collaborationism, received German pensions. At the same time, they did not pay taxes to the Federal budget of Belgium.
German legislation protecting the right to privacy reliably hides the identity of those who received such pensions. According to de Coninck's assessment, Germany paid pensions to about 13,500 Belgian citizens, who were moved to work in Nazi Germany, and about 2,500 collaborators, including not only warriors in the Wehrmacht ranks, but also employees of concentration camps.
The reason for initiating the investigation was the decision of the European Commission of 2016, which obliges EU member states to share data and inform each other about pensions they pay to their citizens living in another EU country.
RTBF, in particular, notes that besides Belgians, Berlin pays such pensions to Spanish, UK, Swedish and even Swiss nationals.
The authors of the resolution, approved by the Belgian parliament's commission, consider that "the problem must be solved urgently at the diplomatic level by the governments of Belgium and Germany in order to clarify this situation and restore tax, social and memorial justice in accordance with the historical and moral obligations of the founders of Europe, that includes our country and Germany."
The document calls on the Belgian government to apply to the German authorities with the request to provide a list of beneficiaries of pensions, to disclose their size and to demand the termination of payments.
