During a lecture given at Leuven University (KUL) on Monday evening, the Federal Pension’s Minister Jan Jambon (Flemish nationalist) said that while he understands the concerns about the federal government’s pension reform plans “reason and propriety are sometimes far lost in the debate on pensions”.
"Reason and propriety are sometimes far lost in the debate on pensions", says Pensions Minister Jan Jambon
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Mr Jambon was speaking as a guest lecturer for students of pension law at KUL. During his lecture that lasted 1.5 hours, he defended all the pensions measures that have been proposed by the federal government so far. "We are drafting the bill. As things stand, we have only written the coalition agreement, the policy statement and the Easter agreement. Yet, without knowing what is in the bill, there has already been so much reaction to it. I understand the concern, but reason and propriety are sometimes far lost”.
Mr Jambon went on to say that he finds “certain group’s” reactions to be disproportional “at this stage”. "The consultations are still in full swing and they are not over yet by a long chalk. We are taking our time to talk to all the groups concerned”.
Last week during question time in the Federal Parliament, Mr Jambon said that he regretted the action that is being taken by magistrates against the pension reform proposals. "I find taking action while talks are still in full swing strange”. The pensions minister stressed that the reforms require everyone to do their bit, including magistrates and in their case only a “small effort” is being asked for.
If policies remain unchanged, Belgium’s budget deficit will rise to 6.5% of GDP by 2029. Mr Jambon hopes to make savings of 2.3 billion euro on the pension’s budget by 2029. On Monday evening he also predicted that that won’t be the end of it and “more belt-tightening will be required during the next legislature” too.
The philosophy behind the pension reform plans is to link the amount paid in pensions more closely to the amount of time that a person has actually worked and also to harmonise the way in which civil servants’, employees’ and self-employed people’s pensions are calculated, Mr Jambon explained.
Mr Jambon hopes to be able to implement the first of the reforms from 1 January 2016. Some of the proposals might take effect later than this.