Employment, insecurity, attractiveness and mobility: how can we improve the effectiveness of governance in Brussels? This is the question that Barbara Trachte (Ecolo), David Leisterh (MR) and Jan Busselen (PVDA) tried to answer during the first evening of electoral debates organised by BECI.
BECI's electoral debate evenings are off to a flying start. Barbara Trachte (Ecolo), David Leisterh (MR) and Jan Busselen (PVDA) kicked off the first session on Wednesday 20 March. The representatives of the regional political parties spoke on the three fundamental and interdependent issues addressed in the BECI memorandum. Firstly, the issue of employment was raised: how can we succeed in achieving an employment rate of 80% of the active population of Brussels by 2030, and thus reduce the Region's precarious situation? They then debated the importance of developing the attractiveness and mobility of Brussels, and finally discussed the effectiveness of the future government.
Given the issues that concern BECI, the response was unanimous: for a renewed Brussels, the political parties must work together and rethink the government, so as not to repeat the same mistakes of the last five years. Among these, the one that took centre stage was the Region's debt. It is getting worse every year, and could rise to €19 billion by 2030 if the political powers do not act now. ‘By spending money we don't have, we end up with a debt that has tripled,’ laments David Leisterh, a member of the MR party.
Employment, attractiveness and efficiency
Barbara Trachte, David Leisterh and Jan Busselen reiterated the importance of ‘fighting together for Brussels’, while qualifying their vision of a more attractive region.
The lead candidate of PVDA points to the difficulties the Region's economy has had in recovering for several years, as well as the imbalance between supply and demand on the Brussels job market. For Jan Busselen, ‘the will to work is often lacking among jobseekers, particularly young people’. ‘We need to find these young people, who are the future of the Region’, he points out. Barbara Trachte notes that Brussels is a long way from achieving an 80% employment rate. For her, it will be absolutely essential ‘to be strategic for the next government, because this is a necessary objective’. Out of 253 regions in Europe, Brussels is 200th in terms of employment, David Leisterh points out. In his view, we need to ‘focus on targeted vocational training, and promote entrepreneurship, particularly female entrepreneurship, which is capable of creating jobs’. The leader of the MR party in the Brussels parliament is also in favour of degressive unemployment benefits. However, Barbara Trachte is convinced that this is not a sufficient solution to get the non-working population into employment. Nevertheless, she encourages companies to recruit staff.
‘We have to fight together for Brussels'
In order to make Brussels more attractive, the three representatives of the regional political parties agree that it is vital, once again, to ‘move forward together’ to improve not only the capital's attractiveness and cleanliness, but also the Region's mobility.
Together for Brussels
The lead candidates insisted on the importance of working in cohesion, to better manage the region's next government. ‘When the next government starts up, it will have to think about all these issues’, Barbara Trachte stressed.
These issues are among BECI's concerns for the next government and will be addressed during the forthcoming electoral debates. On Monday 25 March, Christophe De Beukelaer (Les Engagés), Cieltje Van Achter (N-VA) and Sven Gatz (Open VLD) will all be discussing these fundamental issues.
From 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm, take part in the next debate and register now here.Want to find out more about the other evenings? ➤ Défi, Groen, PS and Voor U , on 16/04
➤ CD&V, PTB and Vooruit, on 24/04
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