Belgium’s federal coalition partner Les Engagés wants the country to join six European Union member states calling for a levy on part of energy companies’ exceptional profits.
Yvan Verougstraete, the leader of the French-speaking centrist party, told Belgian news agency Belga that the proposal was not “a tax on success,” but rather a “crisis bonus.” He argued that when an exceptional situation allows certain companies to make extraordinary profits, it is unreasonable for them to keep that windfall while households and businesses bear the cost.
The finance ministers of Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Austria have been pushing since the summer for a windfall tax on energy firms that are currently recording unusually high profits as a result of the war in the Middle East.
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Verougstraete, who is also a Member of the European Parliament, said the response should be coordinated at the European level. If the bloc wants to safeguard the proper functioning of the market, he said, it cannot allow each member state to act alone.
“When the market is not functioning properly, Europe must be able to intervene to restore fair competition,” said Verougstraete.
He said Les Engagés wants Belgium to join the group of member states seeking to skim off part of the additional profits generated by the crisis.
The party would defend that position within the Belgian government and in the European Parliament, Verougstraete added, and would in any case seek to prevent Belgium from opposing the proposal.
