Belgium’s sixth state reform implemented

The sixth state reform, agreed to in the previous federal government, was implemented on 1 July with the transfer of extra government responsibilities to the regions and communities. The goal of the reform is to allow the regions to function more efficiently. Between 2015 and 2018, thousands of civil servants will be transferred from the federal to the regional governments.

Among the new responsibilities for regions are road safety policy and housing taxes. The regions also become responsible for the children’s allowance, which will remain unchanged until 2016. After that, regions can make changes, such as allocating the same amount per child, for instance.

Other new responsibilities include employment policies and the energy distribution tariff. This may go unnoticed to individual gas and electricity consumers, as the tariff is part of their energy bill. However, it is expected that the final consumer will have to contribute towards the “green certificates”, used to subsidise solar panels in recent years, making energy more expensive.