2023-10-13 18:13:23
The linear savings demanded by regional Budget Minister Sven Gatz (Open Vld) would impact the public transport offer, according to environmentalists.
We knew from the outset that developing the 2024 budget for the Brussels Region would not be an easy task. But a week following the start of the conclave, no major progress has been communicated by the government of Rudi Vervoort (PS) which nevertheless still intends to land this Saturday.
After unsuccessful rounds of discussions and a hasty departure from the negotiating table on Thursday last week, Sven Gatz (Open Vld) finally organized trilateral meetings the next day with each minister in the presence of the minister-president. It was then a question of the regional Budget Minister producing a note during the weekend. Handed over to other firms last Tuesday, this note having received the approval of the Minister-President was not unanimous.
The Greens feel particularly aggrieved. And it is the Stib which crystallizes the debate. According to our information, the effort required of the public transport company is as follows: a saving of 3% on staff and 5% on operations, and the elimination of the energy provision. Reductions on investments are also planned.
On the concrete consequences, opinions completely differ. The environmentalists who oversee the Stib via Brussels Minister of Mobility Elke Van den Brandt (Groen) seem convinced that it is impossible to make these cuts without affecting the current service offering. In the Dutch-speaking media Bruzz, a source bluntly mentions the deletion of around ten lines and the dismissal of hundreds of people.
Realistic?
An assertion that makes some interlocutors sigh in other parts of the Brussels government where we are told that it is completely exaggerated. Linear ratios apply to all administrations, and the Stib is not supposed to be an exception. “The search for savings must be made while respecting the existing transport offer and those to come in 2024. There are a thousand other ways to save money…“
Due to the significant payroll of the Stib, the linear economy is necessarily very high. We are talking regarding approximately 22 million euros to save out of a total of 750 millionbut without affecting the majority of the personnel dedicated to network operation.
It is difficult at this stage to say whether the measure is realistic, whether it is the Greens who are not adopting a constructive approach or whether it is their government partners who intend blaming them for a failed budgetary exercise. Only one thing already seems certain: the initial objective of a return to balance (excluding so-called strategic investments) will be far from being achieved.
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