Brussels will not receive an emergency budget this year, the office of outgoing Finance Minister Sven Gatz (Open VLD) announced on Wednesday. For the time being, the government will continue to rely on funding through 'provisional twelfths' - meaning it can do little more than spend one-twelfth of the last approved budget each month.
The Brussels Region is currently being managed as a day-to-day business due to the lack of a fully functioning government. 'Provisional twelfths' are a budgetary system designed to finance the government's public spending in the absence of an approved annual budget. If a government has not adopted a budget for the coming year by 31 December, it can only spend one-twelfth of what it has spent the previous year per month, with the addition of indexation. It ensures the continuity of state services and the payment of public service salaries.
In recent weeks, the Committee for Budgetary Vigilance has been examining whether the Brussels Region, despite the lack of a fully-fledged government, could draw up some kind of emergency budget for the remainder of 2025. This could, in theory, reduce the €1.6 billion budget deficit to €1.2 billion.
Preparatory discussions were in full swing, but they “have not yielded the desired results,” according to a statement from Finance Minister Sven Gatz’s office.
Gatz is now returning to the initial scenario: preparing a fourth, three-month instalment of provisional twelfths.
The intention is to get as close as possible to the target of a €1.2 billion deficit with “additional precautionary measures.” This includes the freezing of underutilised funds, amounting to approximately €255 million, and a ceiling on subsidies, which should generate €29 million. According to Gatz, an emergency budget may be drawn up in 2026.
