New Court of Audit report: European condemnation looms for Belgium

The European Commission placed Belgium almost completely at the bottom on Tuesday. Today, the Court of Audit has gone one step further. “In its annual budget analysis, the Court of Audit complains that Belgium is not reforming. 80% of the European recommendations are simply ignored by the De Croo government,” N-VA MP Sander Loones quotes from the report. “Belgium is diving into the depths. The least you can expect then is that a government assumes its responsibility and governs. But De Croo is not doing that. And Secretary of State for Budget Bertrand has already made it clear that nothing more should be expected in the coming months either. A government that explicitly says that it will not govern, and we should consider that normal?”

It is well known that Belgium does not comply with the European quantitative budgetary criteria. The budget deficit is too high, the national debt continues to rise and too little order is being put into place structurally. What receives less attention is that the European Commission also formulates recommendations every year that the Member States must implement. “It is striking that only 20% of those recommendations are in fact addressed; 80% are ignored,” Loones emphasises.

Unsustainable

One of the most important recommendations on which hardly any progress has been made is controlling government expenditure. Loones: “When you as a government spend money faster than prosperity grows, you will run into problems. And that is exactly what is happening with the De Croo government. The growth of primary expenditure must remain lower than that 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 , but no progress has been made in this at all this legislature. The Court of Audit’s report shows that this makes government spending unsustainable and that there is a risk of European condemnation.”

The penalty box beckons

The European Commission is not only critical of tackling government spending, but the Court of Audit’s report shows that numerous other reforms are also not being implemented by the De Croo government. These include reforming the tax system, ensuring the budgetary sustainability of medical care, simplifying the system of taxes and social contributions and credibly reducing the debt. “The EU will soon introduce new budget rules. The obligation to reform will be anchored in this,” Loones notes. “But Belgium is already failing on precisely that point today. When these reforms become mandatory shortly, Belgium will end up in the penalty box. Surely that is clear to everyone by now.”