Belgium: The administration of the Brussels-Capital Region will propose its 2023 budget on Wednesday after the Federal and Walloon governments make their declarations, following substantial infighting last week.
The Brussels administration has struck an agreement for 2023, as reported by the offices of the region’s Minister-President Rudi Vervoort (PS) and Minister of Finance and Budget Sven Gatz (Open VLD). Negotiations began on September 27.
Along with this, in the previous week, discussions went on as planned, with Friday’s deadline in mind. The Employment Minister, Bernard Clerfayt (DéFI), rushed out of a cabinet meeting, angry with what he perceived as inadequate guarantees for service vouchers, which are used to pay domestic cleaners, and this derailed negotiations.
Later, Clerfayt declared that he could not approve the proposed budget since the sum allotted for service vouchers had not changed. Despite the fact that the government will require an additional €30 million to cover the cost of these checks in the upcoming months, he claimed that this was still the case.
But when Sven Gatz said that “any additional demands will be accounted for in an updated budget,” which would be revealed in 2023, it seemed as though the regional ministers had come to an agreement.
Furthermore, as a consequence, discussions went on throughout Monday, and an agreement was made on Tuesday morning. On Wednesday, it will be made available to the public.
