Negotiations
for a new federal government in Belgium had a new start on Monday. Four parties
- three from Flanders, one from the French-speaking part of Belgium - will try
to form the first centre-right federal government since 1987.
After having disappeared from centre stage since they
were appointed on the 22d of July, the two federal 'formateurs', the Flemisch
christian democrat and former chief minister of Flanders Kris Peeters, and the
French-speaking liberal party leader Charles Michel (in the middle of the picture, Mr. De Wever and the Flemish liberal
leader, Ms. Rutten, on their side) resurfaced on Monday. They presided over
the second formal meeting between party delegations of the NVA (Flemish
nationalists), CD&V (Flemish christian democrats), VLD (Flemish liberals)
and MR (French-speaking liberals).
At half past six, right in time for the evening news
on tv, they made a statement to the press together, just to announce that for
the most important budgets – like the one of the sickness insurance - restrictive norms will be used. The
technicians will do the work the next days, until the party leaders meet again
on Thursday.
Although most of the negotiators had, at least for a few
days, the opportuny to take a break abroad, the negotiations seem not to have
halted in the past four weeks of silence. Peeters and Michel Saturday sent the
delegations a 15-page note on the budgetary
framework for the next five years, and 150 pages of the first draft of a
government agreement.
In the budgetary note they propose a cumulative effort
of reducing the deficit of all Belgian authorities with 17,3 billion euro
towards 2019. The global deficit of all authorities in Belgium is now at 2,7 %
of gdp, which is a structural amount of about 10 billion euro. That was the
first subject the negotiators had to discuss on Monday. The main question was
if the deficit would be reduced to 0 in 2016, as the EU has asked, or if this
target can be postponed towards 2017 or 2018.
The parties will from now negotiate with a steady rhythm of six days a
week, Peeters and Michel also announced. Still it could take weeks before the
165 pages of today have been discussed and worked out towards a genuine
agreement. If nothing goes wrong in the meantime …
