Deutsch
English
FrançaisSub menu: Home
Home / Index of Authors
Haeck, Bart
3 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.
Election highlights Belgian division
Belgium will elect a new parliament on June 13. The business daily De Tijd complains that the topic of the economy only plays a role in the Flemish regions: "The government that takes up office after June 13 must make unpopular decisions whether it likes it or not. There's no getting around painful cuts. The clearer the parties are on how they intend to deal with this thankless task, the better informed the voters will be and the more able they will be to have a say in the country's economic and social recovery. Unfortunately that only goes for this side of the linguistic divide. ... It is particularly worrying that the Francophone politicians either don't want to or don't dare to prepare their voters for bad news. The result is a two-speed election campaign. While one side of the linguistic divide goes on a painful but necessary search for 22 billion euros, all we hear from the other is 'tout va bien, madame la marquise'."
» full article (external link, Dutch)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Economic Policy, » Belgium
European Monetary Fund would require political leverage
Several European states have proposed the creation of a European counterpart to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to prevent problems such as those in Greece from arising. But such an EMF would be superfluous without sufficient political clout, writes the business daily De Tijd: "The central question remains: what to do if you find a European country living beyond its means? Experience tells us that there is only one answer: If a government doesn't want to tell its voters the bad news, the financial markets will. Only then will the necessary and unavoidable measures be implemented. And that is exactly the role of the IMF. It gives money in exchange for unpopular reforms. The pressure of the financial markets and the IMF are currently the best lever we have. If a European Monetary Fund isn't coupled with closer political cooperation in the Eurozone, it will be nothing more than a poor copy of the original, and consequently of no use whatsoever."
» full article (external link, Dutch)
More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Financial Markets, » Europe
The crisis isn't over yet
The most important Belgian share index, the Bel20, suffered heavy losses for the seventh time in a row on Wednesday. For business paper De Tijd this is a sign that the crisis is not yet over: "Economies run like four-cylinder engines: you have the state, the companies, the consumers and foreign countries. Up to now the last three cylinders had virtually stopped functioning and it was above all the state that kept the economy going. But it can't go on doing this for years on end and accumulate even more debts. The big question now is who will take over? The consumers? Unemployment is rising and will perhaps remain high. … The companies? Many are making a profit once more, but that's only because they have cut costs, not because they are selling more products or services. … Other countries? The rest of Europe is still having problems. … Even that traditional saviour of the global economy, the US consumer, is not what he once was. … The ugly truth is that we still haven't digested the crisis."
» full article (external link, Dutch)
More from the press review on the subject » Corporations, » Consumers, » Economic Policy, » Financial Markets, » Belgium, » Global
© 2005-2012