After a long night of negotiations, the Federal Government has reached an agreement on its 2023-2024 budget, announced Prime Minister Alexander De Croo on Tuesday.
The ministers of the seven parties in the Federal Government had been trying to find an agreement since Friday morning and now reached a deal just in time for De Croo's State of the Union policy statement in the Chamber at 14:15 this afternoon.
"There is an agreement on multi-year budget 2023-2024, including energy support for our families, the self-employed and companies," De Croo announced on Twitter. "We will not let go of anyone."
It is certain, among other things, that the deal includes a tax on excess profits for energy producers and that the basic energy package worth just under €200/month will be extended until the end of winter.
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Negotiations were difficult as the Federal Government's coalition agreement states that fiscal efforts had to be split equally between savings, new taxes, and "miscellaneous" revenues such as excise taxes.
As a string of expected savings was eroded by the current difficulties that Belgium and Europe find themselves in, a gap of about half a billion euros still had to be closed this morning in a race against the clock the finalise the budget in time for De Croo's speech later today. More information about the measures on the table can be found here.
