2023-08-26 02:30:27
The budget will occupy the De Croo government for the whole month of September. He must also work on the themes he will bring to the European presidency.
The budgetary conclave will be THE back-to-school file for the Vivaldi. There first meeting of the kern is scheduled for 1is next september, and his agenda has not yet been decided. But the preparation of the 2024 budget will undoubtedly be the top priority.
An additional budgetary effort
After having successively opened the taps to help businesses and citizens deal with the Covid-19 crisis, then the energy crisis, fiscal consolidation has once once more become a priority of the government. “We want to make a serious 2024 budget, which reflects the turning point taken in March”, we hear in the entourage of Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (Open Vld). At the end of a marathon of negotiations like Vivaldi has experienced so much, the government then agreed on an effort of nearly 1.8 billion over 2023 and 2024.
Even if the question divides the left and the right, the extent of the additional effort to be made this fall is in principle known. In the spring, despite the very strong reluctance of the PS and Ecolo, the De Croo government agreed to take additional measures for 1.2 billion during the preparation of the 2024 budget. It was pushed behind the back by the European Commission, to which it was necessary to transmit the multi-annual budgetary trajectory provided for in the framework of the Stability Pact.
We must now determine how do we accomplish this effort. “The three-thirds rule – one-third income, one-third savings, one-third miscellaneous – should serve as a guide,” said a deputy prime minister. And certain elements discussed in the context of the tax reform might be integrated into the exercise.
Jean-Marc Nollet, co-president of Ecolo, announced that for him, the file was not closed, and that the ecologists were going to fight to obtain theincrease in low and medium salaries as part of the 2024 budget. But this would constitute a reduction in tax revenue, which would have to be offset by the increase in other taxes so as not to further increase the importance of the effort to be made.
On the right, the desire is to complete a “precise and serious” budget, given the long period of current affairs which might follow the June 2024 elections.
To the right, the desire is to complete a “precise and serious” budget“, given the long period of current affairs which might follow the elections of June 2024. And the exercise will be all the more complicated as each minister will come with his proposals for the end of the legislature, often asking for additional resources.
The agenda of the European presidency
The other big back-to-school issue at the Federal? The agenda of the European presidency. From 1is January to June 30, Belgium will indeed ensure the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Unione. And it must define, in good agreement with the Swedish and Spanish presidencies, which preceded it, the main themes that she wishes to highlight. “It will revolve around enlargement, the integration of Ukraine and the other candidate countries and the fundamental values of the European Union, but this still needs to be refined”, says one on the side of the Prime Minister. minister.
Security around the Gare du Midi
And then, as always, the news will of course assert its rights and impose itself on the diaries. There war in ukraine has not disappeared from the radar, and will certainly require new decisions. And for a few days, it’s been security around the southern war which has invited itself into the concerns of the Federal government. The Prime Minister took the initiative, on Monday, to bring together the various actors, so that they might talk to each other. Decisions must follow in the days to come.
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