Budget minister calls for regional contributions to increased defence spending
Belgian Budget minister Vincent Van Peteghem wants regional governments to contribute to the increased defence spending required by NATO's new targets.
However, he is concerned that the current rules may restrict their contribution to an additional 1.5 per cent, earmarked for areas such as infrastructure and cybersecurity. This would exclude core defence spending, which is set to rise from 2 per cent of GDP to 3.5 per cent by 2035.
The remarks were made by Van Peteghem of CD&V on Thursday during the presentation of a study marking 10 years of public finance analysis by IBPF/BIOF, the Belgian institute for public finance. While acknowledging that Belgium’s fiscal outlook is challenging, he emphasised that this should not be a reason to lower ambitions.
"We’ll have to be self-critical every year"
"We must stick to the multi-annual trajectory we presented to the European Commission," he said. He also noted that if the projected returns on certain policy measures fell short of expectations, adjustments would be necessary. "We’ll have to be self-critical every year."
New cooperation agreement
Van Peteghem emphasised that the regional governments must conduct the same level of fiscal scrutiny, given that Belgium submitted its plans to the EU as a federal state. He added that discussions were under way on a new cooperation agreement between the federal government and the regional authorities.
At this week's NATO summit in The Hague, member states agreed that total defence-related spending should increase to 5 per cent of GDP by 2035. Van Peteghem reaffirmed his call for "realism" when approaching these targets, maintaining that Belgium should adhere to the 2 per cent commitment for this legislative term. “I remain critical of such a sharp increase,” he said.
© PHOTO HANS LUCAS VIA AFP
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