Belgian Official Gazette website gets makeover after 27 years

After 27 years, the website of the Belgian Official Gazette has been given a new look. It has been modernised and made easier and more efficient for those who want to search and consult the publications. Belgian Justice minister Paul Van Tigchelt presented the new site to the press on Wednesday.

The Official Gazette, the official publication of the Belgian State, is part of the Federal Public Service (FPS) Justice. Laws, decrees, ordinances, royal decrees, statutes and amendments to statutes can only enter into force after they are published in there.

27 years in the making

Since 3 June 1997, the Official Gazette has been available online and the paper version was abolished on 1 January 2003. However, the layout and structure of the site have remained unchanged since its launch. Although the site is updated daily with new publications, it was completely out of date and not at all user-friendly for searching.

Van Tigchelt emphasises that the new design is more in line with the layout of the FPS Justice website and Just-on-Web, the central digital gateway of Justice. The new site is clearer and it is now much easier to search and consult publications. For the first time, the site has also been adapted for mobile devices.

Another new feature is that the editions of the Official Gazette available now go back to 1960 instead of 1997. Editions from 1939 onwards will be added at a later date. The Justel database, a separate section of the website that contains Belgian legislation, has also been greatly expanded to include the complete statute books.

"Staatsblad.be is a brand new and fresh looking website that is much more user-friendly"

The old Official Gazette website "was one of the least user-friendly government websites. No doubt countless people have cursed it over the past decades," said Van Tigchelt. "Fortunately, this is a thing of the past. Staatsblad.be is a brand new and fresh looking website that is much more user-friendly".

Some 700,000 pages of staatsblad.be are consulted every day by citizens, government institutions, the judiciary, journalists and lawyers.

^{© BELGA PHOTO HERWIG VERGULT}