The practical work to put in place the next Flemish government began in earnest on Wednesday after Tuesday’s brief meeting. Jan Jambon (N-VA) has set up a dozen working groups that will meet as of Monday to draft the various sections of the coalition agreement. A core group, which will involve presidents of N-VA (New Flemish Alliance), CD & V (Flemish Christian Democrat) and Open VLD (Flemish Liberal Democrat), will coordinate the negotiations.
The three parties of the future coalition called a large number of participants to join the different working groups. Political, but also technical profiles will be around the table, Jambon’s Spokesperson said. "We need a very good methodology to work as efficiently as possible. This will be ‘bottom-up’… The results of the working group discussions will then be sent up to the core group", he said.
Budget discussions already began on Wednesday. "We must first know the budgetary framework in order to better prepare the group work," the spokesperson added.
In recent days, several N-VA members said it is possible to reach an agreement within two to three weeks. Jambon stated that he did not want to work "in a hurry". The spokesperson specified that the coalition agreement must be extensively debated. "The better the discussion, the less likely is the risk of interpretation issues."
The formal deadline for the formation of the Flemish Government is Monday 23 September, the day the Minister President delivers his traditional September speech.
The Brussels Times
