Belgium’s De Wever government adopts pre‑summer reforms and postpones €10 billion savings

Prime Minister Bart De Wever chaired a late‑night cabinet meeting in Brussels before the summer recess, concluding a set of measures on Saturday morning. Ministers agreed to annualise working time, allowing firms to smooth overtime across the year, and introduced a new family credit granting five additional days of leave per child. The cabinet also voted to ban imports of products from Israeli settlements, tighten the football law, set the airport boarding tax at €7, and adopt new energy‑efficiency standards, a minimal service level for prisons, and social‑policy measures for the police and defence sectors.

At the same time, critics note that the coalition failed to deliver a summer‑time savings pact, pushing a €10 billion fiscal cut to the post‑vacation period. An earlier promise for an extra week of parental leave remains unimplemented, highlighting tensions between ambitious projects such as satellite launches and basic social reforms.