Belgium and the Netherlands vowed Tuesday to strengthen their collaboration and cooperation in areas such as security, energy, and climate.
In a statement following a joint government consultation held in the Belgian city of Ghent, the two countries said they would step up efforts to enhance internal and external security.
"We are seeking greater cooperation in the areas of economic and knowledge security, and are continuing our efforts to guarantee fundamental rights and freedoms, ensure social protection, and safeguard our environment and climate," the statement said.
The fight against organized crime is an absolute priority, especially the fight against drug trafficking, it added.
"Rising inflation threatens our prosperity and must be curbed. Our state finances need to be made more resilient to external shocks," they said in the statement.
"We need to commit to the accelerated diversification of oil and gas suppliers and speed up the energy transition by raising our ambitions in the development of offshore wind farms, green hydrogen ... We will also explicitly work on this together in the EU context," it said.
"Securing gas supplies for the next winter and high energy prices are not only prompting the search for new suppliers but making it clear that renewable energy needs to be rolled out more quickly. Integrating more renewable energy into the energy mix and pricing is necessary to reduce fossil fuel use," it emphasized.
On environment and climate, the two countries said they would strengthen mutual cooperation on climate adaptation, particularly with regard to the insurance gap, and "integrate the impact of climate change into our macro-fiscal policies."
Editor: Galia
