EU Commission adds climate to Belgium’s hefty to-do-urgently list

More than nine months after the deadline, the EU Commission today gave Belgium a final warning: within two months a national climate plan reducing emissions by 47 per cent needs to be on the table. This is one more deep structural problem Belgium has to solve urgently. Or, to be more precise: Belgium and its different regions and communities.

The EU member states agreed to have 27 national energy and climate plans by 30 June 2024, for a reduction of CO2-emissions at EU level with 55 per cent by 2030. Today, Belgum is one of five member states without a plan. The problem is a disagreement between the different governments in Belgium about who has to carry how much of the burden. Specifically, Flanders is unwilling to go for a higher goal than a 40 per cent reduction.

Complicated

If foreigners know one thing about Belgian politics, it’s that “it’s complicated”. Belgium has a central (‘federal’) government, and governments for three communities and for three regions. All have their competences, on their territory. The competencies and the territories are overlapping. Because of distrust and political competition, the different governments tend to work against each other, instead of cooperating in addressing the challenges.

After many years of weak political decisions, Belgium is left with a bunch of huge problems. There’s a significant public deficit and sovereign debt. Belgium needs to double its military spending urgently. The ageing of society is ill-prepared. Many, deep socio-economic reforms are necessary. And much more action is needed on energy, on climate and on environment.

The new Belgian prime minister, Bart De Wever, is a Flemish nationalist and as such in favour of ending the existence of Belgium by giving Flanders autonomy. The irony of the political reality is that he now has to make sure all governments cooperate in a major effort to tackle all of the above-mentioned problems. There’s no more time to lose. There’s no time for constitutional reform.

Yesterday/Tuesday, De Wever (N-VA) held a first meeting with his two most important counterparts, the minister presidents (prime ministers) of Flanders and Wallonia, Matthias Diependaele (N-VA) and Adrien Dolimont (MR). Brussels was absent since there’s no new minister president, as the Brussels political partners still couldn’t form a coalition, nine months after the elections.

_{#FlandersNewsService | Adrien Dolimont (l), Bart De Wever, Matthias Diependaele (r) © BELGA PHOTO JASPER JACOBS}