Meanwhile, the state of region’s finances has worsened further. The caretaker government that has limited powers, no majority and can’t take any significant policy decisions works with a budget based on so-called “provisional twelfths”. Each provision twelfth is one twelfth of the last budget passed by parliament. In the case of the Brussels-Capital Region this is the 2024 budget.
Following an earlier decision by Belfius, ING has now announced that it is not renewing a contract that offers the Brussels-Capital Region a half-a-billion-euro credit line when it runs out on 31 December 2025.
The Brussels-Capital Region is seriously in the red and any attempts so far to form a new coalition government have failed. In a reaction to the news, the finance minister in the outgoing Brussels regional government Brussels minister van Begroting Dirk De Smedt (Flemish liberal) said that “This is more than just a detail”. He also reoeated his warning that Brussels risks a US-style shutdown if a new budget is not passed soon.
“With the loss of the credit lines from both ING and Belfius, the Region will lose a total of one billion euro in liquidity leeway. This is not just a detail. Without an adequate alternative, as I’ve said before, we risk a shutdown in which the regional authorities will no longer be able to pay invoices on time,” Minister De Smedt said.
He adds that he has been trying to make the message clear within the regional government for several weeks now. “I hope that my colleagues are also aware of this urgency. We must act now. Only through a new credible financial strategy and a multi-year budgetary plan in which we structurally reduce the deficit, can we guarantee the continuity of our services and the stability of Brussels”.