Belgium risks missing out on EUR 4.5 billion in European recovery funding due to the failure to reform the pension system

If the federal government does not urgently tackle major pension reform, our country risks missing out on up to EUR 4.5 billion in European recovery funding. “De Croo just does nothing. Nothing. Even the National Bank says so. Meanwhile, this government has actually reached EUR 20 billion in the red. This is just not serious anymore,” says MP Sander Loones. 

In 2021, the European Union decided to support the Member States after the coronavirus pandemic through a massive investment programme. EUR 4.5 billion of this is available for Belgium. This is much less than initially expected, by the way. But we are now in danger of missing out on even that amount because the De Croo government just cannot manage to put a proper pension reform on the table.

Savings trajectory “minimal to even zero”

“During the budget debate in the autumn of last year, the Prime Minister promised that the pension system would ‘absolutely’ be reformed in December. The recovery money actually had to be requested from Europe in January. What has happened since then? Nothing. And then De Croo had the nerve to claim in May that Belgium was ‘out of the danger zone’.” The European Union clearly thinks otherwise. “Belgium will not escape European scrutiny next year,” the European Commission stated two weeks later. This budget review gave the government not only the opportunity, but also the duty, to put things in order. But once again, nothing happened. The National Bank describes the savings trajectory for next year as, and I quote verbatim here: ‘minimal to even zero’. Of course, the European Union will then draw its own conclusions!” says Sander.

The interest charges are higher than the entire annual police budget

“To make even more of a caricature of this irresponsibility than it already was, we hear Secretary of State Thomas Dermine (PS party) declare in the press that ‘getting into debt is not that bad’. It must be noted that he is the government member responsible for communication with the European Commission regarding the blocked European recovery fund. Can we expect a minimum degree of seriousness? Just look at the interest charges! Last year, these amounted to EUR 6 billion. This year, these already appear to come to EUR 8.5 billion. Next year, we will break through the threshold of EUR 10 billion. To put this in perspective: that’s four times more than the total annual budget of the police!”

The EU demands four times as much in savings

Sander Loones: “According to Dermine, we are on track, but the European Commission’s report shows just the opposite. Only one can be right: the European Commission or Secretary of State Dermine. He also claimed that a structural saving amounting to 0.3% of GDP The gross domestic product (GDP) is the total monetary value of all goods and services produced within a country, both by companies and the government. This term is usually used as a benchmark for a country’s prosperity. This is why the N-VA closely follows the evolution of the Belgian GDP. GDP , equivalent to EUR 1.7 billion, would suffice. The European Commission made it clear to the Secretary of State for the Budget, Alexia Bertrand, that the savings must amount to at least 1.2% or even more. That amounts to savings of EUR 7.1 billion in pensions. Four times as much!”

Does Dermine even know what his job is?

And it doesn’t stop, Sander observes. “Dermine also said in the Chamber that we still had all the time in the world. While the dossier should actually already have been submitted in January. According to Dermine, the European calendar is ‘not binding’, but in the meantime, the Commission has already indicated that the application for payment of the recovery money must be received by September. Either Dermine does not know what his job is, or he is not providing parliament with all the information!”