Budget: "Government demonstrates its decision-making capacity" – Belgium

"We have demonstrated our ability to decide on important issues, what is on the table, with this wave of structural reforms and decisions, is our menu for the coming months. implement these measures: adopt bills, royal decrees, etc. ", the head of the government said at a press conference in Brussels.

As announced, the federal government has agreed on a "job-deal" – with 28 measures and aiming to create 12,500 jobs next year – the arrival of a fourth mobile telecom operator on the Belgian market, as well as the partial privatization of Belfius and the indemnification of Arco Cooperators.

The last two files were linked. The deadline for the 30% listing of the Belgian bank is not yet decided. The proceeds will be used for deleveraging and financing the Strategic Investment Pact for € 190 million.

As for the indemnification of Arco co-operators, it will benefit from an envelope of 600 million euros. The payment of compensation will be made once the government has made a final decision on the Belfius IPO. The bank will process the requests.

"The government makes its mismanagement pay to the most precarious"

The budget agreement concluded that night by the federal government makes pay to the most precarious the mismanagement of the executive Michel, deplored Tuesday the head of group PS in the House, Ahmed Laaouej. Ecolo denounces him old recipes, which postpones the note on future generations. For him, the savings are the result of a "asphyxiation" organized by the federal government in recent years, which leads to a hole of 5 billion euros in 2019, and not 2.6 billion or 3 billion as claimed by a "government of liars in the budget". For the Socialist, the government has granted "blank checks to big business" by giving gifts to the diamond, by not acting enough against tax havens, at the expense of the most vulnerable affected by the index jump, the measures on pensions, recipients, SNCB cuts, VAT on electricity, etc. Job creation, which the government prides itself, is mainly due to the improvement of the international situation, adds the opposition MP. It considers it indecent to target the unemployed by increasing their benefits, or by tightening up early retirement benefits, while at the same time the government is giving a gift to Arco co-operators. As for the sale of shares of the Belfius public bank, "we sell an badet that works well because we can not get out of debt," regrets Ahmed Laaouej.

Ecolo denounces old recipes, which postpones the note on future generations

Francophone ecologists denounced Tuesday the "old recipes" used by the federal government to complete the draft budget 2019 and the agreement found for the "deal for employment", the compensation of cooperators Arco – linked the partial privatization of Belfius – and the arrival of a fourth mobile operator in the telecom market, which entail, according to the Greens, "the increased precariousness of a growing segment of our citizens. "

" Contrary to what was presented this morning by the federal government, the account is not good.In fact, the Michel government continues to deny that some budget estimates do not hold water (for example: the structural nature of ISOC advance payments, new tax revenues) and, consequently, will send the bill to the next legislatures and future rations, "Ecolo co-chairs Zakia Khattabi and Patrick Dupriez said in a statement.

"Privatization, control, sanction … so many old recipes that have never given anything else as a result that increased precariousness of an increasingly important part of our fellow citizens," they added .

According to Ecolo, the agreement on employment, for example, is budgeted and symbolically to the detriment of the most fragile. "While some measures concerning trades in short supply are interesting, particularly in terms of training or job mobility, the increased degression of unemployment benefits remains scandalous when we know how difficult the job market is today", ecumenical leaders continued.

FEB sees "more positives than negatives"

The Federation of Enterprises of Belgium (FEB) sees "more positive points than negative points" in the agreement for the federal budget presented Tuesday by the Michel government. The acceleration of the degressivity of unemployment benefits is a greater one for employers, but they remain concerned about the practical implementation of these measures.

"It is positive that a series of cases that mortgaged government, such as Arco and Belfius, have been unblocked, and it is also good that steps have been taken to guide more job-seekers into the shortage trades, "said Pieter Timmermans, Managing Director of the FEB

The acceleration of the degressivity of unemployment benefits is "an important measure to fight against employment traps", according to the FEB. "It is important that the measure is budget neutral", however, emphasizes the organization.

"By encouraging, through a bonus, job seekers to undergo training leading to the exercise of a trade in short supply, we kill two birds with one stone: more jobs in sectors that really need manpower, and these job seekers will find work faster. "

FEB s nevertheless worries about the concrete implementation of the measures of the employment deal and especially the budgetary measures. Over the next few weeks, she will take a closer look at the texts to see if they do not increase business costs.

The CGSLB "furious" with a "new sprain of social dialogue "

The CGSLB said it was furious on Tuesday after the government presented the federal budget in detail, which it considered a" new twist to social consultation ".

" social agreement of 2014 provided that the social partners can negotiate lower ages for access to the CCR as part of the inter-professional agreements, but in the summer agreement, the federal government removes this possibility and again undermines the freedom of social partners, "says the liberal union.

The acceleration of the degressivity of unemployment benefits is, according to the CGSLB, counterproductive but also" harsh and unfair to jobseekers who will see t their benefits go down even faster below the poverty line. " "The lower the income, the more difficult it is to support the costs of finding a suitable job (training, Internet connection, childcare …)."

With the employment deal, the government recycles, according to the union, "a bad recipe by badociating socio-economic reforms and budget." Moreover, we wonder how it calculates the impact of these measures on the finances of the State. deal is indicative of the weakness of its fiscal policy, designed to meet the demands of the European Commission to the detriment of the social well-being of citizens. "