Belgian government clears summer backlog: annualised working time, Israel settlement import ban, and Belfius sale on the table

A marathon session at 16 Wetstraat

Prime Minister Bart De Wever convened his core cabinet on Friday morning for a session that stretched into early Saturday. At around 5:00, the ministers emerged with white smoke over a packed agenda that had linked politically sensitive files for months. The agreements allow the government to head into the summer recess with several flagship dossiers cleared.

Annualised working time breaks the deadlock

The most hotly debated item was the annualisation of working time, a reform championed by Employment Minister David Clarinval (MR). Instead of counting hours per week, the reform will compute them per year, a design intended to help employers in sectors with sharp seasonal swings, tourism, leisure, horticulture, events and offshore activities, manage workloads without resorting to temporary unemployment. The system can only be applied with the worker's explicit agreement and ensures the same gross monthly pay irrespective of actual hours worked in that month. Vooruit had blocked progress for weeks, arguing that abolishing weekly limits would erode overtime pay and therefore purchasing power. The compromise reached includes a commitment to compensate any demonstrable loss of purchasing power, removing the final hurdle.

Import ban on settlement goods proceeds

Politically coupled with the labour reform was the introduction of a ban on imports from Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. The measure stems from a government commitment made at the end of last summer as a response to the bombardment and rising death toll in Gaza. While the principle was already agreed, the practical details remain missing, according to Belgian media.

Flight tax trimmed and other files greenlit

The embarkation tax on flights longer than 500 kilometres was originally pencilled in at EUR 10 but was dialled back to EUR 7 in the final package. Ministers also gave the go-ahead to a tightening of the football law, the introduction of a family credit system, the implementation of social agreements in the police and defence forces, an energy performance norm, and a minimum service guarantee in prisons.

Belfius and Ethias: a privatisation push

The government also turned to the partial privatisation of Belfius, the bank fully owned by the Belgian state. The liberal MR party, Mr Clarinval's political family, wants to bundle the sale of a portion of Belfius with a disposal of stakes in the public insurer Ethias. The finance minister will now contact regional governments to establish whether they are willing to sell their holdings.

The finance minister will contact the regions to see if they agree to sell their participation.

Budget battle looms after the holidays

With these files closed, ministers can depart on holiday, but a far heavier task awaits upon their return. The government must agree a multi-year budget trajectory stretching to 2029, built on an additional effort of EUR 10 billion. That negotiation promises to reopen old divisions inside the coalition over spending, taxation and social benefits.