Since the euro crisis, every eurozone nation is required to submit their draft budget for the upcoming year to the European Commission by October 15. The Commission then provides its assessment of the budget plans by November 30 at the latest. If there are significant deviations, the Commission can request revisions.
This year, four countries failed to meet the deadline. In France, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is still attempting to secure parliamentary support for the budget. In Spain, finding a parliamentary majority has become challenging since the Catalan party led by Carles Puigdemont withdrew its backing for the government. In Croatia, the government took additional time to complete a budget review for 2025 before commencing work on the 2026 budget.
In Belgium, Prime Minister Bart De Wever has set November 6 as the deadline for reaching a budget agreement. He is aiming for a 10 billion euro effort by the end of the legislative term in 2029 to alleviate concerns from the Commission regarding the excessive budget deficit. Similar to France, Belgium is under heightened European scrutiny due to its high deficit.
The 10 billion euro effort represents 1.5 percent of GDP, which would help reduce the budget deficit to 4 percent of GDP by 2029 under current conditions. Potential recovery benefits could further lower this figure, moving the government closer to the targets established with the Commission by the end of the legislative term. The ultimate goal remains a deficit of 3 percent by 2030.
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