One-fifth of projects undertaken as part of the post-Covid recovery plan are currently behind schedule, Belgium's State Secretary for Economic Recovery Thomas Dermine told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday.
The Belgian Government had benefited from €4.5 billion in subsidies from the EU's Next Generation plan for these projects, of which 80% have already been achieved or are close to being completed, according to Dermine.
Nonetheless, 20% of the projects are yet to be finished for various reasons. These include longer-than-expected consultations with stakeholders, technical issues that may have arisen along the way or ongoing legal proceedings
Another, more political, problem facing these projects is the Belgian Government's unwillingness to demand the first part of an €850 million payment which they are set to receive from the EU.
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This sum is set aside to help with Belgium's economic recovery plan but demands a reduction of the country's budget deficit. The stumbling block appears to be a long-flouted pension reform which had to be revised over fears that it would balloon Belgium's growing debt.
According to the Court of Auditors, if this issue is not solved and the recovery plan projects are continued to be put on hold, then the government could lose “several tens of millions of euros.”
