Brussels, 25/02/2004 (Agence Europe) - The transfer of company pensions to the State can be accounted for as budgetary income, said Eurostat on Wednesday. This decision should please Belgium, which took on Belgacom's pension fund. However, Eurostat stressed that such a transfer is neutral on the long term, because of the pension payments. The Belgian government evaluated its budgetary surplus as 0.3% of GDP for 2003, including the transfer to the State of five billion EUR held in the Belgacom pension fund. However, its right to take account of these funds was previously not clearly established. When its recommendation on Belgium's stability programme was adopted, the Commission announced that the definitive figures on the 2003 budget surplus would depend on Eurostat's decision (EUROPE of 19 February, p.10).