2023-12-15 06:00:00
Yesterday, Brussels deputies debated at length the budget of the Brussels Region. We know that the financial situation in Brussels is critical and the budgetary effort requested from members of the government as well as public bodies is insufficient. This week on LN24, Les Engagés MP Christophe De Beukelaer feared that Brussels was heading for bankruptcy.
Today, it is the turn of the MR to denounce “the dynamic of theft of Brussels public funds carried out by the Brussels government”. Its president David Leisterh notes that the situation began to go off the rails in 2017. “That year, expenses exploded. Since then, Brussels’ debt has tripled.”
The Covid crises, war in Ukraine, energy prices? “Certainly, but it’s too easy to focus only on crises. The Court of Auditors estimated that the 2020, 2021 and 2022 crises had cost the Brussels Region 1.5 billion euros in expenses. However, the debt over the last three years has reached around 4 billion euros more. The majority have fallen into a well-known syndrome: we increase spending in times of crisis without reducing it once the crisis is over.”
‘Open-VLD should not have been part of a left-wing government without us’
The liberal criticizes the “ideological positions of the PS and Ecolo” on certain expensive and poorly implemented projects. It also points to the inefficiency of most public bodies. “The allocation of the Brussels Environmental Protection Agency increased by 83% between 2009 and 2023. Essentially in operating expenses, therefore personnel. Is Brussels cleaner today than in 2009? Ask the people of Brussels: the answer is no.” Other examples, “in terms of access to housing, we spend hundreds of millions of euros on construction and renovation. With what results? 54,000 households are waiting for social housing, the average delay is 11 years”.
The debt of the Brussels Region is estimated at 11.4 billion euros
The most symptomatic failure of the Brussels government lies, according to the MR, in the inefficiency of Actiris and Bruxelles Formation. “Actiris is more than 700 million euros in funding for zero effect. Unemployment is on the rise, there are 90,000 job seekers in Brussels… As for Bruxelles-Formation, it trains less than at the start of the legislature even though it is better equipped. In 2018, Bruxelles-Formation trained 16,000 job seekers with a positive exit rate of 77% and a budget of 64 million euros. In 2022, 14,000 job seekers were trained with a positive exit rate of 63% and a budget of 76 million euros…”
Review the distribution of skills between Dutch speakers and French speakers
This then, the liberal further poses, that “the Brussels taxpayer pays, on average, 65% more taxes than a Flemish taxpayer and 36% more taxes than a Walloon taxpayer. Reason why we will refuse to increase taxes if we gain a majority.”
David Leisterh, however, exonerates Brussels Budget Minister Sven Gatz (Open-VLD). “Open-VLD remains our obvious partner for next year. However, the Open-VLD should not have joined a left-wing government without us.” He also suggests reviewing the distribution of skills between communities. “It would be logical for such important matters such as territorial development, mobility or the budget to return to the French-speaking fold.”
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