Council of State

The application has to bear the heading ‘cassatieberoep’, ‘recours en cassation’ or ‘Kassationsbeschwerde’ and has to be signed by a lawyer. It shall include the following data and statements:

• the name, address and nationality of each applicant;
• an expressly elected address for service, i.e. an address in Belgium that will be used for all correspondence concerning the application;
• the decision against which the appeal is lodged, indicating on which date and under which number the appeal was registered at the administrative court;
• the name and address of the opposing party before the administrative court;
• a statement of the factual circumstances of the case;
• a statement of the grounds for appeal, indicating which legal provisions have been infringed and how they were broken.

A copy of the contested decision, as well as six certified copies of the application itself shall be enclosed. If the applicant is a legal person, copies of its articles of association have to be enclosed. The documents that have to be enclosed and any documents enclosed in support of the application, have to be numbered and mentioned in a bordereau.

The application has to be sent to the Registry of the Council of State, rue de la Science 33 – 1040 Brussels, either by registered mail or by using the electronic procedure (for more details, see the ‘e-Procedure’ tab on this website). Appeals in cassation are to be lodged within thirty days from the day notice was given of the decision.

If some of the compulsory mentions, documents or copies are lacking, the examination of the case will undoubtedly be delayed. The appeal might even be declared inadmissible and therefore not be examined any further.

Each applicant has to pay a fee of 200 euros. To this end, the Registry sends a bank transfer form upon receipt of the application. The applicant who has benefitted from free legal aid before the administrative court, will also automatically be exempted from the fees associated with the cassation procedure.