The federal government has failed to reach an agreement on tax reforms. Key ministers met last night to discuss a new proposal from Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (Flemish liberal) and Finance Minister Vincent Van Peteghem (Flemish Christian democrat), but some four hours later it was clear that agreement was impossible. "The coalition agreement states that we should prepare tax reforms, but we wanted to proceed further. That failed," Prime Minister De Croo said afterwards.
Prime Minister Alexander De Croo says no further talks on tax reforms are planned. "It was not possible to reach an agreement because the positions between the coalition partners were far apart. Proceeding with an agreement would have led to an accord that would have a heavy impact on our budget. That’s why I decided it was better not to make an agreement," says De Croo.
The prime minister believes the failure of the negotiations does not affect his government. "We were able to complete other dossiers like the pension reforms and the nuclear power plants' dossier. Many other dossiers will follow" he added enthusiastically.
The Prime Minister also thanked finance minister Vincent Van Peteghem for his work over the past few weeks.
Speaking on VRT Radio, Van Peteghem was highly critical of the Francophone liberals of MR, who he blamed for the failure of the talks: "If you don't want to carry out the exercise, if you keep working for those one hundred rich voters, then nothing is possible," he sneered.
"I make no secret of the fact that it was difficult to reach an agreement," MR deputy prime minister David Clarinval (Francophone liberal) said last night after the talk’s failure had become clear. He claimed there were still "too many taxes on the table" adding the proposed reform did not reward all working people including the self-employed.
Despite the failure of the tax reform negotiations, the MR will continue to work as part of the Vivaldi coalition - as the present coalition government is called. David Clarinval: "There’s a cabinet meeting on Thursday with about 100 items on the agenda. We will continue to work on these other issues."