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Since Belgium decreased its development aid, the migrant crisis did not contribute to a larger deficit (Photo: andres rueda)

EU fiscal rules, migrants and Belgium's trick

The migrant crisis has been with us for years already.

Finally, in the autumn of 2015, governments started to complain about the cost of sheltering migrants while being constrained by European fiscal rules under the Stability and Growth Pact.

Accordingly, the European Commission granted flexibility and said that migrant-related expenditure will be exempted from the deficit ceiling and will not lead to sanctions.

In the past, I argued that this might be an effective measur...

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The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s, not those of EUobserver

Author Bio

Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.

Since Belgium decreased its development aid, the migrant crisis did not contribute to a larger deficit (Photo: andres rueda)

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Author Bio

Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.

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