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The European Commission gives Belgium until mid-March to submit its budget plans for the coming years. This was announced by a spokesperson of the Commission.
Belgium should have already submitted a structural multi-year plan for the budget, reforms, and investments in September, but due to the ongoing negotiations on the formation of a federal government, our country requested a postponement for the second time on December 26.
The Commission now sets the deadline for mid-March, as revealed in a letter sent to the new Belgian government on Friday, February 7. This deadline gives the Commission six weeks to evaluate the plans, until the end of April.
By the end of April, the government of Prime Minister Bart De Wever must also inform the Commission of the measures it is taking to address its excessive budget deficit. Belgium has been on the so-called European bench since last year because the budget deficit exceeds the threshold of 3 percent of the gross domestic product.
In the absence of a government, a European reference trajectory over four years was established in November, in which our country should eliminate the excessive deficit by 2027. However, the Commission has shown a willingness to allow some flexibility and adjust the budgetary trajectory if Belgium can demonstrate with a credible multi-year plan that it can sustainably improve public finances in the medium term. The maximum duration is seven years.
In the coalition agreement, the new government aims for 2030 to reduce the deficit below the 3 percent threshold and end the European procedure. The agreement also includes a list of measures, such as interventions in pensions and the labor market, to restore public finances.
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