Vooruit wants to reduce the budget deficit to below three percent only by 2030: “Strong investment with a calculated plan”

Vooruit does not want to bring the budget deficit back below the threshold of 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) until 2030. That is two years later than the European Commission requests. Deputy Prime Minister Frank Vandenbroucke explained the plan on Monday The morning.

Belgium recorded a budget deficit of 4.4 percent last year. According to Vandenbroucke, the European Commission is asking that our country again falls below the three percent threshold by 2028, but Vooruit thinks that is too early. The party does not want to come close to that standard until 2029, in order to certainly achieve the target, “even with a large surplus”, by 2030.

“What Vooruit proposes is a very strong investment in the future of our children, our education, our mobility,” says Vandenbroucke. “We are taking the time to do this.” According to the Deputy Prime Minister, Vooruit has a “really calculated plan” ready that allows the national debt to be brought under control and at the same time leaves room for investments in sectors such as education, childcare and mobility.

“Perfectly negotiable”

Vandenbroucke is convinced that his party’s proposed budgetary trajectory will be “perfectly negotiable”. The Social Democrat believes that the budget plans of other parties in this campaign, such as that of N-VA, are also not entirely in line with European rules.

Vooruit has previously been critical of the new European framework for the supervision of national budgets. “The framework has one weakness: you have to invest, but the useful effect on economic growth and competitiveness is not taken into account,” says Vandenbroucke.