Nearly 900 million euros in European subsidies are expected in this context, but the European Commission is asking Belgium to fulfill a whole series of criteria for this, by this Friday. It gets stuck in particular on pension reform. The reform carried out by the Belgian Minister of Pensions, Karine Lalieux (PS), and validated by Vivaldi last July, clearly does not meet the objective set by Europe.
A report is therefore expected. “Nothing abnormal”, reassures Thomas Dermine, who ensures that corrective measures will be taken on this point.
In the rest of the interview, referring to the tax reform in Belgium, “you have to go there” believes the socialist. “We need relief on low and medium wages. But to do that, you have to increase the tax burden on other types of income: those from capital, high wealth”.
And on this point, the Secretary of State targets the liberals. “Some are blocking this tax reform, because it is more important for certain parties to protect the wealthy. The liberals defend the very very rich and have a problem with a rebalancing of the tax burden”.
Listen to the interview above.