commentary
The state of the budget is dramatic, as is our well-being. But the political energy that the red budget figures rightly release is out of proportion to the attention that the red sustainability figures deserve.
Lieven SioenDeputy editor-in-chief
Today at 03:00
After the agreement between the Flemish government and the agricultural organizations, the reality test follows. The farmers obtained, among other things, a relaxation of the fertilization rules in nature reserves. Groundwater pollution is a persistent problem that successive, laboriously finalized manure action plans have failed to resolve. New figures from the Flemish Environment Agency show that water quality in agricultural areas has again declined.
Is the quality of groundwater as important as the profitability of the agricultural model? Is the unaffordability of a 32-hour week so much more decisive than well-being that a debate about a better work-life balance is killed in advance? Are field birds as important as the budget?
What field birds have in common with the budget is that things are going from bad to worse with both. The first is evident from the sustainability report of the Federal Planning Bureau, the second from economic forecasts that the same Planning Bureau published last week. Despite economic growth, the budget deficit will continue to derail if policy remains unchanged, to 4.6 percent of GDP in 2024 and 5.6 percent in 2029. Reducing that to 1.5 percent, as Europe demands, requires a colossal saving of 27 billion. Or, more concretely, more than 5,000 euros per family per year.
But our well-being also continues to derail. It is approaching a low point, writes the Planning Bureau, both in terms of physical and mental health. This is reflected, among other things, in the increasing number of long-term ill people. The country also scores poorly on 51 sustainability indicators defined by the UN. Barely one in three is moving in the right direction. The Planning Bureau has been mapping these sustainability indicators since 2014. They must provide a counterbalance to the previously almost exclusive attention to economic indicators such as GDP, growth, employment and debt.
In principle, there should be no hierarchy between well-being and prosperity, and no contradiction between nature and economy. In reality, according to the Planning Bureau, our economic capital has increased significantly over the past ten years, while our human and social capital has grown only moderately. In fact, our environmental capital, including biodiversity and water quality, has continuously and sharply declined.
It is therefore a shame that the political energy that the red budget figures usually release is so out of proportion to the attention that the red welfare and sustainability figures deserve. So no, field birds are not at all as important as the budget.
