Following the announcements by the Federal and Walloon governments, the government of the Brussels-Capital Region will present its 2023 budget on Wednesday after significant infighting last week.
As confirmed by the offices of the region’s Minister-President Rudi Vervoort (PS) and Minister of Finance and Budget Sven Gatz (Open VLD), the Brussels government has reached an agreement for 2023 following negotiations that started on 27 September.
Talks continued last week with the aim of concluding on Friday. But discussions were thrown off-track when Minister for Employment, Bernard Clerfayt (DéFI) stormed out of a ministerial meeting, unhappy with what he saw as insufficient guarantees for service vouchers which are used to compensate domestic cleaners.
Clerfayt subsequently stated that he could not accept the proposed budget as no changes had been made to the amount set aside for service vouchers. This, he said, was despite the fact that an additional €30 million would be needed for the government to pay for these cheques in the coming months.
But the regional ministers appeared to have resolved their differences when Sven Gatz declared that “any additional needs would be provided for in an adjusted budget,” which will be announced in 2023.
As a result, talks continued on Monday, with an agreement being reached on Tuesday morning. It will be presented to the public on Wednesday.
