'Working' Prince complains salary cut impacts his human rights

The brother of the Belgian King, Prince Laurent, is claiming that the Government is violating his human rights after the Prime Minister cut his annual €308,000 (£280,000) endowment.

The cut occurred after an embarrassing incident, involving Laurent’s unauthorised appearance at a foreign event. Whilst Laurent did not attend the meeting called by the PM, using a sick note to excuse himself, a seven-page letter was handed to the PM in which the Prince’s lawyer claimed that the Government’s actions would force him into ‘social isolation’.

The lawyer wrote that the Government’s attempts to limit Laurent’s meetings to representatives of foreign states breached article 8 of the European convention on human rights as it would force him into “social isolation”.

“It goes without saying that the court of human rights would make short work of such violations of the right to a fair trial,” the lawyer writes.