FUTURE PRIME MINISTER LETERME SEES HIS PARTY AS

UNCLAS BRUSSELS 000206

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV ECON BE
SUBJECT: FUTURE PRIME MINISTER LETERME SEES HIS PARTY AS
INDISPENSABLE TO DEAL ON CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM



1. (SBU) Summary: Yves Leterme, the man who "won" the June
federal elections in Belgium, and who now serves as Vice
Prime Minister, is not sure arrangements will be complete on
constitutional reform before March 23, the day by he is
expected to become Prime Minister. Given the electoral
strength enjoyed by his Flemish Christian Democrats (CD&V) --
30 of the 101 seats needed to effect constitutional reforms
-- he told the Ambassador that any agreement would have to
meet his needs. Not doing so risked precipitating either the
formation of a minority government or even new elections.
Leterme noted also that he was attempting to close a huge
budget gap of 3.4 to 3.6 billion euros, roughly ten percent
of the federal budget. On a separate issue, he expressed
interest in learning more about U.S. airport noise abatement
efforts. End summary.


2. (SBU) During a January 23 discussion with the Ambassador,
Belgian Vice Prime Minister Yves Leterme attempted to play
down optimistic projections about the chance of success in
his effort to fashion new constitutional reforms. According
to Leterme, it was not necessary to get all the details
finalized before his expected assumption of the Prime
Ministership on March 23. Given the limited time available
before the transition, it would be "impossible," he said, to
expect much or even any actual legislation to be in place.
That said, he had told the other parties that they must
fashion a fairly concrete agreement on what was going to
happen.


3. (SBU) The CD&V was prepared to consider a number of steps
to sweeten a deal. Since any alteration of the balance
between federal and regional government would generate
considerable savings in expenditure, Leterme said he was
willing to guarantee at least 20 percent of this sum for
Wallonia. Just as important, Leterme indicated that he was
open to discussing other amounts and mechanisms for dealing
with the fiscal side of any shift in governmental
responsibilities for unemployment and health care expenditure.


4. (SBU) In the meantime, Leterme said he was busy with his
other principal duty as Minister of the Budget. His main job
now was to find approximately 3.4 to 3.6 billion euros, or
about ten percent of the present federal budget. He was not
as optimistic about the ease of achieving this as Prime
Minister Verhofstadt, who believed the gap to be
significantly less. Leterme made clear that he was remaining
fully abreast of other key government tasks like the recent
terrorism alert.


5. (U) In response to the Ambassador's remarks, Leterme said
he would be interested in learning more about how the U.S.
dealt with the airport noise issue. The Ambassador agreed to
send him information on the issue and on plans to host a
Belgian expert. Fox
.