During the evening, the MR and its leading figures also discussed support for SMEs, the taxation of health insurance funds, and the conditions for obtaining Belgian nationality.
The MR's New Year tour stopped in Eupen this Monday, 5 January, for the New Year address of the PFF, the German-speaking liberal party.
To open the evening, national President of Jeunes MR Cédric De Buf and President of Jeunes PFF Maëlle Locht spoke with an optimistic message: “Let's stop scaring young people. Their future is full of opportunities, notably thanks to the artificial intelligence revolution. Let's bet on innovation rather than punishment. Let's believe in a positive vision for the future.”
Next, German-speaking Minister for Culture, Sport, Tourism and Media Gregor Freches gave a resolutely liberal speech focused on local economic development: “Our economy depends on many factors, but here what we really hold in our hands is the hospitality and tourism sector, a genuine engine of local growth in Wallonia. We have just launched a tourism strategy to extend the average length of stay in the East Cantons, from 2.4 to 3.4 days per visitor, in line with the upward trend already observed in the region. One extra day of presence means thousands of additional overnight stays, which translates into millions of euros injected into our hotels, restaurants, shops and attractions, and therefore into local employment.”
This provided a perfect segue into the Q&A session led by Minister for SMEs and Self-Employed Eléonore Simonet, who had just presented her SME plan. She stated: “I want to make life easier for SMEs and the self-employed: simplified access to public contracts and financing, removal of small unnecessary taxes, administrative simplification and a better social status, particularly for self-employed women. That means more leave and better protection in case of illness, while preserving the workplace flexibility that is the strength of entrepreneurship, without increasing social contributions for those who take risks and create jobs. The MR wants to make entrepreneurship more attractive in Belgium. We need more opportunities and fewer obstacles, without increasing public spending, in order to sustainably support our self-employed workers and SMEs.”
MR President Georges-Louis Bouchez closed the official session by first addressing Artificial Intelligence, which had been the focus of a press conference held that same morning to present the MR's proposals on the topic. “Only 5% of global venture capital investment in artificial intelligence goes to Europe, compared with 52% to the United States and 40% to China: that is the reality of the global balance of technological power,” explained Georges-Louis Bouchez. “How do you expect Europe to keep its place in the world when others will master all these technologies and we will be dependent on their goodwill to access them? The day China and the United States fully dominate AI, we'll feel rather clever tweeting to condemn President Trump or wanting to sanction Beijing: we simply won't have anything left to say.”
He also returned to his proposal to tax health insurance funds, made the day before in La Louvière. “After we exposed the €6 billion in assets held by health insurance funds and the €400 million in evaded taxes, they now tell the press that they will have to raise people's contributions, whereas when the left wants to tax the banks and bank fees rise every month, that doesn't seem to bother them. People believe it's their health fund that reimburses them, when in fact it's just an increasingly useless administrative apparatus in the age of artificial intelligence, within a system where health funds and unions above all defend their business model based on precariousness: the more sick or unemployed people there are, the more management fees they collect.”
As the event was taking place in the German-speaking Community, Georges-Louis Bouchez also addressed the abolition of the Senate. “We must move forward with abolishing the Senate, but this reform could have an extremely damaging consequence for the German-speaking Community: it would lose its guaranteed representation at federal level, which would run counter to the very spirit of our rule of law, founded on balance between all its communities. I have pledged to Gregor Freches that I will secure guaranteed representation for the German-speaking Community in the Federal Parliament, because you are one of the most efficient entities in terms of employment, public administration and education. Belgium is made up of 3 languages, all of which must be present at the heart of our institutions,” declared the MR President.
Finally, Georges-Louis Bouchez reaffirmed his commitment to strengthening the sense of belonging to Belgium. “We will table a bill in Parliament to tighten the conditions for access to nationality, because today one can fail their integration process and still become Belgian, which is unacceptable for a country that wants to remain open while also being respected. Being Belgian is not a right, it is an honour: it means being part of one of the most progressive and prosperous countries in the world, one that carries a liberal project and ideal, and this bill aims both to reward those who come here to build Belgium and to send a clear signal to those who see it as a doormat,” he concluded.
Watch the President's speech in Eupen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8-ry3pFtlc