Belgium's Federal Government must make an additional €4.9 billion in savings by 2029 to meet European obligations – considerably more than the €3-4 billion Prime Minister Bart De Wever (N-VA) has mentioned so far.
A report drawn up by the monitoring committee on the budget traditionally marks the start of the budgetary review. On Tuesday, working groups of technical experts will then meet.
As expected, these experts are faced with grim figures: by the end of its term, the Federal Government needs to make an extra effort equivalent to 0.67% of GDP to meet the European spending standard – amounting to €4.9 billion.
What's more, that figure does not even take into account the consequences of the war in Iran, which could lead to slower economic growth.
The figure is considerably higher than the additional effort Prime Minister De Wever spoke of last month. At the time, De Wever was talking about €3-4 billion.
For this year, the Federal Government also needs to carry out a catch-up operation. Taking into account the agreements from the multi-year budget that they defined at the end of last year, the government is already €1.4 billion behind.
The federal deficit is rising further from 3.7% to 3.8% of GDP, mainly due to the failure to implement certain measures, such as those relating to VAT. Tax revenues are €500 million short.
European exemption clause
The leader of the Flemish socialist party Vooruit, Conner Rousseau, pointed out that European budgetary rules are not set in stone and that an exemption clause is provided for international crises of this magnitude.
"We must activate that now. Not only for defence investments, but also for measures to support businesses and households," said Rousseau.
He also wants to see joint financing for investments in energy and in the industry of the future. "Belgium led the way with the financing of Ukraine via Eurobonds," said Rousseau, who is looking at investments in cross-border power grids, battery parks and energy islands.
"And if rules block progress, Europe must put the public interest first through emergency legislation," he said.
Finally, Rousseau is campaigning for the reactivation of SURE, a European instrument established in 2020 that provided financial support to Member States to cover the costs of national temporary unemployment schemes.
"During the Covid-19 crisis, SURE saved 30 million jobs and 2.5 million businesses by funding temporary unemployment schemes," he said. "Reactivate SURE immediately. The instrument exists, it works, and it costs Member States nothing extra."
