Jan Jambon brings EUR 2.25 billion to Flanders from the European Coronavirus Recovery Fund

Flemish Minister-President Jan Jambon reached an agreement with Walloon Minister-President Elio Di Rupo on the distribution key of the European recovery fund after tough negotiations. The EUR 2.25 billion is more than hoped for. “Flanders will be able to implement its Flemish Resilience plan fully,” says Jan Jambon with satisfaction.

Of the EUR 5.925 billion European coronavirus money, EUR 1.25 billion (21%) goes to the federal government. Of the remainder, EUR 2.255 billion (49%) is for Flanders and about the same amount for the other governments. Moreover, a large part of the federal money will flow to Flanders.

Jan Jambon reverses European logic and brings in more than expected

If Belgium had followed the distribution logic of the European Union, Flanders would have received barely 40% of the EUR 5.925 billion from the recovery fund. When determining how much each EU Member State would receive, Europe mainly looked at per capita income and unemployment figures. This logic worked in Wallonia’s favour, and Elio Di Rupo would have liked to see it applied to the distribution of the money. But Minister-President Jan Jambon negotiated a more favourable deal for Flanders. “In the end, we succeeded in reversing half of that European distribution logic, and Flanders and Wallonia met each other halfway. Flanders is now getting about the same amount in total as all the French-speaking entities combined.”

The federal states take matters into their own hands

The deal is the result of intensive negotiations between Jan Jambon and Elio Di Rupo. Last Thursday, the positions were still far apart, Jan Jambon says. “The two largest federal states therefore took matters into their own hands over the weekend and together sought a compromise.” On Sunday and Monday, Jan Jambon and Elio Di Rupo spoke privately via video calls. When the negotiations with all the government leaders were restarted on Monday evening, an agreement was reached to within EUR 100 million. That agreement was finally reached around 7 p.m.

Brexit fund entirely to the federal states

On top of that, there is still the Brexit fund. Because the federal government enjoys higher customs duties, the Brexit money will go entirely to the federal states. The EUR 58.5 million for the fishing industry will go entirely to Flanders. Of the remaining EUR 225 million, Flanders will receive 55%, totalling about two-thirds of the Brexit fund. “That corresponds to the ratio between the regions in terms of the expected impact on job losses,” Jan Jambon says.

Fully implementing Flemish Resilience

In other words, Minister-President Jan Jambon has done a good job negotiating for Flanders. When the Flemish Government approved its EUR 4.3 billion recovery plan in September, it was hoping for European money to help finance it. “That was also successful. We can fully implement the Flemish Resilience Plan. That is important for Flanders,” Jan Jambon concludes.