Transfers

The money flows from Flanders to Brussels and Wallonia are called transfers. The transfers from the federal budget, the Financing Law The Belgian Financing Law - officially the Special Financing Law of 16 January 1989 - establishes how money is distributed between the Federal State and the Regions and Communities in Belgium. The Di Rupo Government, which included Groen and Ecolo (the Dutch- and French-speaking Green parties), adapted the law based on the political agreement in the summer of 2013. This was done without consulting the regions. The revision results in the cash flows, which are linked to the transfer of powers, being less inflation-proof. In addition to this, extremely heavy efforts were imposed on the regions in order to help close the gap in the federal budget. Financing Law and 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 amount to between 6 and 7 billion euros per year, and 11 billion euros if debt repayments are included. The size of the transfers is always contested by the French-speaking side or they are just referred to as normal solidarity contributions. A study by Vives (KU Leuven) revealed that the transfers did not serve solidarity, but had a paralysing effect on the growth of both the Walloon and Flemish economies.