De Croo government rejects European energy plans

Thomas Dermine

Secretary of State for the Relaunch (PS)

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The pennies mainly come from three jars. From the corona recovery fund, there are still 225 billion euros in cheap (but unpopular) loans – only Greece, Spain and Romania have applied for all the loans. In addition, the Commission is shifting more than €34 billion in cohesion and agricultural resources and plans to sell €20 billion in additional European allowances. With such allowances, companies have to pay a price for every tonne of CO₂ or equivalent they emit.

Distribution key

As is often the case, the money is a stumbling block. Also for Belgium. ‘First and foremost, the regions are in danger of avoiding such cohesion and agricultural resources because of the shift. Secondly, loans are not interesting because they push up our debt, while it is the same Commission that is asking Belgium to review its debt trajectory. And thirdly, more emission rights simply mean more emissions and lower emission prices’, explains Dermine, who emphasizes that he fully supports REPowerEU’s objective.

Finally, Belgium does not agree with the national distribution key that the Commission wants to use for the 20 billion in new resources. This is the same as that of the corona recovery fund and takes the economic consequences of the pandemic with reference year 2021 as its starting point. ‘That is not relevant for REPowerEU. It would be much better to look at the energy dependence of the Member States. In this way, Belgium would receive more than 500 million euros instead of the planned 270 million euros. The proposed calculation method is not acceptable to us’, says Dermine.

Tax on large wealth

Dermine thinks that, as with the European recovery fund, the Commission should take on new common debts so that the Member States can receive additional subsidies for the accelerated turnaround. ‘That’s no problem. The EU’s average debt ratio is significantly lower than that of the US, Japan or the UK.’

How should it be repaid? “With new European sources of income, such as a European tax on large wealth, a tax on the big technology companies or the carbon adjustment mechanism at the border,” it sounds.

On Monday, European heads of state and government will meet at a special summit in Brussels, where the REPowerEU proposal will be further discussed. “Belgium plans to agree to the basis of the proposal, but not to its content,” said a government diplomat. An agreement between the 27 member states is therefore not yet within reach.

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