Budget: let's not ignore expert advice

The Belgian government is facing a difficult budgeting assignment. According to Peter De Roover, Parliament Chairman of the N-VA, experts and international institutions such as the OECD The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), established in 1961 as a result of the Marshall Plan, is a cooperation agreement between 34 countries in order to study and coordinate social and economic policy. The member countries try to solve their problems jointly and to mutually align their international policy. The organisation also collects statistical information to make comparative analyses. These OECD analyses are a valuable basis for the N-VA to test policy against itself or even to give shape to it. OECD and the IMF The International Monetary Fund (IMF), established in 1945, focuses on monetary issues. The global organisation is governed by and accountable to the 188 member countries. In addition to financial stability, monetary cooperation and international trade, the IMF promotes and supports employment, sustainable economic growth and combating poverty. In this regard, it provides loans, technical assistance, specialised training courses and advice to governments. It also monitors financial trends. IMF provide much inspiration for budget discussions. “I would be disappointed if their advice is ignored for reasons of party-politics,” he asserts.

A recent report in which the IMF analyses the effectiveness of government spending shows that our government can save almost 14 billion on Social security Social security is currently managed at the Federal level in Belgium. The most important pillars of Belgian social security are: sickness and invalidity insurance (NIDHI), pensions, unemployment insurance and child allowances. In addition, occupational illness, occupational accidents and annual holidays are dealt with at this level. Some Flemish parties have been campaigning for years for (large parts of) social security to be transferred to the Regions and Communities. social security without damaging its quality. “The complicated structure in Belgium means that we must nuance the options at the federal level,” Peter De Roover notes, “but it is the umpteenth expert advice that points us in the same direction. It is and must be possible to cut back on government spending in order to truly put this country back on track towards the needed structural reform.” Other economists also point out that general spending in Belgium’s government departments is much higher than in neighbouring countries.

The IMF report was preceded by a report from the OECD in February; the OECD urged for longer careers and phasing out of early retirement arrangements, decentralised wage negotiations, stopping automatic index-linking and making the trade environment more flexible.

Employment rate too low

“The problem can in fact be summarised into a single comparative figure,” Peter De Roover concludes. “Germany has an employment rate of almost 78 percent, while ours is less than 68 percent. That means 10 percent less contributions from the working population and 10 percent more allowances for non-working population. That explains the observation that our primary expenses are 1.5 percent above the European average.”