Recommendation for a Council Decision establishing that no effective action has been taken by Belgium in response to the Council Recommendation of 2 December 2009

According to Article 126 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Member States are to avoid excessive government deficits.

The Council, acting upon a recommendation by the Commission, decided on 2 December 2009, in accordance with Article 126(6) of the Treaty, that an excessive deficit existed in Belgium. On the same day, and also on the basis of a recommendation by the Commission, the Council adopted recommendations under Article 126(7) asking the Belgian authorities to take action in a medium-term framework in order to bring the deficit below 3% of GDP by 2012 at the latest.

On 15 June 2010, the Commission concluded that based on the Commission services' 2010 Spring Forecast, Belgium had taken effective action in compliance with the Council recommendation of 2 December 2009 to bring its government deficit below the 3% of GDP reference value and considered that no additional step in the excessive deficit procedure was therefore necessary at that point in time.

Belgium took some measures to strengthen the monitoring mechanisms to ensure that fiscal targets are respected, such as the establishment of a monitoring committee in 2010 and a strengthened monitoring of the budget execution in 2012. However, no significant progress has been made to adjust the fiscal framework in order to ensure that the budgetary targets are binding at federal and sub-federal levels, and increase transparency of burden-sharing and accountability across government layers.

This leads to the conclusion that the response of Belgium to the Council recommendation according to Article 126(7) of the Treaty of 2 December 2009 has been insufficient. Belgium did not put an end to its excessive deficit by 2012. The fiscal effort falls significantly short of what was recommended by the Council, and was even entirely absent in 2011.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)381: Follow the progress of this recommendation through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:381:FIN

EUR-Lex: SWD(2013)381: Analysis by the Commission services of the budgetary situation in Belgium http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2013:381:FIN

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)382: Recommendation for a Council Decision giving notice to Belgium to take measures for the deficit reduction judged necessary in order to remedy the situation of excessive deficit http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM:2013:382:FIN

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)382: Follow the progress of this recommendation through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:382:FIN

ESO: Background information: Commission takes steps under the Excessive Deficit Procedure http://www.europeansources.info/record/memo-commission-takes-steps-under-the-excessive-deficit-procedure/

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