Belgium didn’t show a lot of fiscal discipline in the good economic times. Since 2009 our country belongs to countries in the excessive deficit procedure with a strict surveillance of the European Commission. The nonsensical debate about austerity should be overcome.
The banking crisis remains the severest shock experienced by the Kingdom of Belgium in the post-war period. Its origin lies in the collapse of business trust around the world. Despite this, it holds useful lessons for the Belgian financial system.
To challenge youth unemployment government policy has to be adapted to local realities. Merely to target European resources to regions where youth unemployment rate is above 25%, is inappropriate.
There’s a difference between the principle declaration of the European government and the political acts. This difference is also been perceived in Belgium were we don’t hesitate to make choices of which we know that they are disadvantageous for our partners in the EU.
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It’s the responsibility of everyone to try to canalize the energy of indignation to societal improvements. A prominent mechanism to avoid derailments is more transparency.
As long as structural measures to end the “too big to fail problem” of banks is not completed, we have to consider the potential negative effects of bonuses and exit payments.