The NPB

Setting up of the Board

Following the "Five Presidents’ Report":  Completing Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union (22 June 2015), on 20 September 2016, the Council of the European Union adopted a recommendation encouraging Member States to create a National Productivity Board. The setting up of such a board answers the willingness to strengthen competitiveness in a sustainable way so that economies are more resilient and can therefore recover more quickly from economic shocks. The role of the Productivity Boards is to analyze competitiveness in the broad sense, to enrich basic knowledge and to inform the national debate, in order to enhance the ownership of policies and reforms necessary at national level.

In Belgium, the National Productivity Board was officially established on 14 May 2019, in accordance with the law of 25 November 2018 creating the National Productivity Board that transposes the European recommendation.

Mission of the Board

The National Productivity Board is tasked with:

• diagnosis and analysis of productivity and competitiveness developments;
• analysis of policy challenges in the field of productivity and competitiveness;
• assessment of the effects of policy options in the above-mentioned areas.

To fulfill its tasks, the National Productivity Board may contact other Member States’ Productivity Boards, communicate publicly in a timely manner, obtain appropriate access to information available from public administrations and consult stakeholders.

The National Productivity Board carries out these tasks within the framework of the European Semester, in particular by assisting the European Commission in data collection and by assisting governments in preparing the drafting of the National Reform Programme.

The National Productivity Board publishes an annual report.

Composition of the Board

The National Productivity Board is headed by a Bureau which is composed of:

• a chairman, nominated by the secretariat of the Central Economic Council (CEC) and
• two vice-chairmen, one nominated by the National Bank of Belgium (NBB) and the other by the Federal Planning Bureau (FPB).

The Bureau determines the agenda of the meetings as well as the choice of themes to be studied by the Board.

The National Productivity Board is composed of 12 members. Six of them come from the federal level and six from the regional level:

• Siska Vandecandelaere (CEC)
• Luc Denayer (CEC)
• Catherine Fuss (NBB)
• Tim Hermans (NBB)
• Chantal Kegels (FPB)
• Joost Verlinden (FPB)
• Caroline Ven (Flemish Region)
• Joep Konings (Flemish Region)
• Marcus Dejardin (Walloon Region)
• Bernard Jurion (Walloon Region)
• Micael Castanheira (ULB)
• Koen Declercq  (Brussels Capital Region).

The second member of the Walloon region is being replaced.

The FPS Economy provides the secretariat of the Board.

The members of the Board and of its secretariat are appointed by the King of Belgium.