2023-09-21 16:39:00
The recovery plan is a vision worth nearly 5 billion euros to rebuild Belgium following the covid health crisis. The NextGen Belgium program includes 119 investment projects and 40 reforms, which must be completed by the end of 2026. These projects are deployed in digital, energy, teaching, pensions, education, employment, mobility or the green transition.
“This is the largest investment program since the end of the 1970s,” enthuses Thomas Dermine (PS), the Secretary of State in charge of Recovery, who sees it as the accomplishment of a complete transformation of the country towards betterment. “This is the Belgium of tomorrow.”
Will Belgium see the money from the recovery plan during this legislature? “Of course”, reassures Thomas Dermine
The implementation of this plan is the shared responsibility of the federal and federated entities as well as local authorities. Its funding is granted by the European Commission in several tranches. The granting of these tranches is conditional on various achievements, or milestones, which themselves result from political negotiations. And that’s what makes the story so interesting.
The deadline for submitting the request for payment of the first tranche of 847 million euros is September 29, 2023. The Commission will then assess the admissibility of the request in November. In theory, Belgium met all the parameters to receive this money, the last one which was not adjusted being the pension reform. This reform was the subject of long discussions within the federal government, but today, there is no longer any question for the executive of going back on it. “This reform is definitive. We are not going to engage in a ping-pong with Europe on reform,” continues Thomas Dermine.
Up to 459 euros per month more for certain workers: what the pension reform will change for you in concrete terms
In other words, if the pension reform does not please Europe, the first tranche might be cut by a few million euros. “Between 30 and 200 million”. Even if “we never have absolute certainty” that the file will be accepted as is, the Secretary of State remains confident. There may be “a few settings” to review. But this should not jeopardize the continuation of the numerous works already started as part of the recovery plan.
Among these projects already underway which will in principle be reimbursed by Europe, we are talking regarding the renovation of tens of thousands of buildings, the installation of charging stations, the creation of cycle paths, the deployment of scanners for containers, the creation of a nuclear furnace or the development of numerous industries.
For the future, “there will normally be no political elements as complex as pension reform,” says Thomas Dermine.
It should be noted, however, that one of the future conditions for receiving one of the following tranches will be the preparation of a tax reform. The European Commission should therefore put pressure on the next government so that a tax reform is adopted and implemented by 2026. This means that the EU might use the argument of financing the recovery plan to force the Belgium to form a government following the 2024 elections that sticks to its wishes.
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