Let's analyse the priorities of the Belgium EU Presidency for 2024
Belgium assumes the rotating Presidency for the thirteenth time as the EU grapples with Russian illegal aggression in Ukraine, the pandemic, the energy crisis, disinformation, extreme climate events, and a renewed Middle East conflict.
This comes at a crucial moment for the EU.
The Belgian Presidency will work to preserve Europeans, improve cooperation, and prepare for the future. It will cover six topics, with a focus on ensuring Ukraine receives our unwavering support.
If the current institutional cycle ends, the Presidency will help ease the transition. This body will assist the Strategic Agenda 2024-2029 and EU future discussions.
Increasing competitiveness
As geopolitical realities change and emerging technologies like AI advance, the EU must emphasise long-term competitiveness and industrial policy. The EU should maintain a level playing field for companies, particularly SMEs, allowing fair competition within Europe and beyond. A clear, predictable, and simple regulatory framework is essential. The EU should pioneer a sustainable, creative, and resilient digital environment that empowers people and benefits enterprises.
The Belgian Presidency aims to enhance the EU's internal market and industrial future, and advance the capital markets and energy unions. Priority will be given to improving economic security, minimising harmful dependence, and boosting technology leadership in key areas.
The Presidency aspires to advance research, development, and innovation to create and market customised solutions that strengthen EU value chains' resilience and competitiveness. The goal is to create a future-oriented labour market that boosts employment and development. It will emphasise public and private investments.
It will emphasise the importance of cohesion policy as a crucial investment tool, accelerator for change and convergence, and structural foundation for the European Union. The focus will be on ensuring food production sovereignty. The Presidency will prioritise cohesiveness between EU internal and exterior policy.
Taxation and Customs Matters
The Belgian Presidency will support green and digital transformation, open strategic autonomy, and global competitiveness to solve European concerns.
This commitment protects Europe's economic foundations.
The Presidency will emphasise the Union's economic governance evaluation, Ukraine's financial aid, and Banking Union and Capital Markets Union legislation. The Presidency will close the VAT deficit, finish the mid-term MFF review, update the Union Customs Code, and regulate cross-border teleworking taxes.
VAT
The Belgian Presidency will promote VAT gap closing for national and EU budgets. The ‘VAT in the Digital Age’ proposal will be prioritised. The Belgian Presidency will review Energy Taxation Directive.
Customs
Customs services in member states are faced with several increasing challenges and tasks, particularly in light of the twin transitions to digital and green technologies. Taking this into consideration, the Belgian Presidency will work towards updating the Union's Customs Code to better suit present and future requirements while also improving its benefits to EU Member States, the EU as a whole, and society at large.
Direct Taxation
EU and Member States seek to implement OECD Pillar Two by January 1, 2024, and Pillar One by January 1, 2025. Addressing tax evasion, avoidance, aggressive planning, and harmful direct tax competition shall be prioritised. The EU will update its list of non-cooperative nations, execute legislative and non-legislative actions, and address withholding tax abuse to minimise compliance costs and burden for cross-border investors. The Presidency supports BEFIT and will propose harmonised tax legislation for mobile workers. The Presidency will promote the Unshell Directive and SAFE. The Pillar Two Directive is intended to boost EU tax transparency and information exchange.
Sanctions
he Presidency will continue the Council’s work on frozen assets and the efforts and on updating relevant sanctions regimes, ensuring coherent implementation, countering circumvention, and shaping new measures if required. The overarching priority will be to improve cooperation between all actors, ensure the measures’ effectiveness, and address legal and humanitarian concerns.
Free Trade Agreements
When confronted with problems on a global scale, the EU Trade policy plays a crucial part in ensuring our open strategic autonomy and growing our capacity for resilience. There are three objectives:
Objective 1: Diversification
The objective of the Belgium Presidency is to diversify our exports and supply chains to guarantee access to vital raw materials (CRMs) and new technologies that are essential for the twin transition and our open strategic autonomy.
Look out for the CRMs conference that is set to take place on March 26.
Objective 2: Strengthening global ties
Trade deepens our connections with people all around the world. The Presidency will work to advance a bilateral trade agenda that is one that is open, sustainable, and forceful, as well as one that is ambitious and balanced. The Indo-Pacific region, Africa, and Latin America are all areas in which we are actively working to expand our connections with trans-Atlantic partners. When the EU-US Trade and Technology Council comes to visit us in the spring, we are looking forward to holding it.
Objective 3: Full and effective implementation and enforcement of free trade agreements
In addition, due attention will be paid to the full and effective implementation and enforcement of trade agreements in all of their dimensions. This will be done to foster economic growth, assisting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), encouraging job creation, and facilitating sustainable development, which will ultimately contribute to the prosperity of EU citizens and of our trading partners.
MC13
The Belgium Presidency will support the preparation of the MC13.
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