Brussels, 22/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - One week after the Belgian press revealed the alleged costs of the budgetary adjustment called for by the European Council, the Federal Planning Bureau broke its silence on the public television channel RTBF on Sunday 21 September. The Bureau said that as things stand, Belgium's budgetary situation would lead to disaster, but spoke of the possibility of staggering the adjustment.
Last week, the Belgian newspapers De Standaard and Het Nieuwsblad reported that budgetary adjustment could block the creation of 47,000 jobs between now and 2017 (see EUROPE 11155). “This figure is not the most significant in the work we have done”, explained Philippe Donnay of the Planning Bureau (our translation). He explained that if nothing is done to tackle the budgetary situation and the challenge of the ageing population, Belgium would be close “to the situation in the 1980s or the situation of Greece, with an explosion in the rate of indebtedness in the coming years”. If Belgium implements the trajectory decided upon by the federal government in accordance with the European country-specific recommendations, taking “a certain number of scenarios” - either from a point of view of public income or expenditure - “we are looking at 47,000 jobs being lost compared to continuing as we are”, Donnay went on.
“Either we do nothing and up in a disastrous situation, where we stagger the adjustment, but we will have to see what has to be done in exchange”, Donnay explained. Belgium has until 15 October to submit its draft budget for 2015. Although structural balance must be achieved in 2016, the parties negotiating the formation of a government are believed to be looking at putting this target back until 2018 (surplus of 0.75% in 2019, rather than 2017). The level of the surplus could also be revised (our translation throughout). (EL)