Belgium’s federal government has agreed to make an additional budgetary effort to save €10 billion by 2029, the office of Prime Minister Bart De Wever said on Friday.
Last week, the monitoring committee presented the government with its report on the state of the public finances and the scale of the savings required. As expected, the outlook was bleak.
Until now, the minimum saving effort needed by the end of the legislature had been put at €7.7 billion to keep Belgium in line with its European commitments.
But concerns are growing over a possible snowball effect, meaning a rapid rise in interest payments on public debt.
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According to the Federal Debt Agency, this could begin from 2031.
De Wever’s team has therefore agreed to bring forward the required effort by two years in order to meet the planned spending target sooner.
Preparatory work is continuing ahead of the talks.
The government is due to hold its budget conclave at the end of September.
Deputy prime ministers have been asked to keep their schedules as clear as possible from the start of September.
