A dime hurdle for the Belgian government to agree to the European energy plan: “the method of calculation is not acceptable”

But there is disagreement over how this money will be distributed among member states. The method of calculation is also not approved by the Belgian government. Of the 300 billion, only 20 billion is real new money, which has to come through the sale of additional allowances. Under these emissions rights, companies “purchase” permission to emit greenhouse gases.

The Commission proposes to distribute 20 billion according to the method that was also used for the Corona Recovery Fund. Problem: This method of calculation is not suitable for Belgium. It is based on our 2021 GDP and our economy doing well last year. As a result, our country threatens to get a billion less from the Corona Recovery Fund. So the government does not like this calculation method for the power plan.

“It would be much better to look at the energy dependence of member states,” Foreign Minister Dermine said in Canac and Le Soir. “In this way, according to the management’s calculations, Belgium will receive more than 500 million euros instead of the planned 270 million euros. The proposed calculation method is not acceptable to us.” Prime Minister Alexandre de Croo’s government (Open VLD) has been told that Belgium cannot support the RepowerEU funding proposal yet at a special summit in Brussels on Monday.