The federal government will hold its first cabinet meeting after the summer recess on Friday. The Greens previously advocated putting the tax reform back on the government table. The negotiations on this failed in mid-July.
According to De Croo, however, a new attempt is of little use. “Making sure we can maintain our budgetary trajectory is the number one priority. Can there be other things? I will of course never say no in advance, but the fiscal reform was not possible within the budgetary framework in July. The reason we did not implement that reform at the time is that it would have had a very heavy impact on our budget discussion and that budgetary framework now remains the same,” said the prime minister. “I don’t think we need to put a lot of effort into that,” he said.
LOOK. No deal on tax reform: what are the consequences?
Budgetary control is particularly important at the moment. “It should be ready by the first half of October,” emphasizes De Croo. “We are waiting for the most recent figures from our administrations to see where we stand, but budget control is crucial. Step by step, we must bring the budget into safe waters. So far we have been able to respect our budgetary path and we should now be able to continue to do so,” he concludes.