Saint-Josse-ten-Noode plans to sue the Brussels-Capital Region, accusing it of deliberately pushing the municipality into financial distress.
The municipal executive will ask the next council meeting to approve legal and administrative action to protect the commune’s interests. In a statement, the local authority described the situation as “organised financial suffocation”.
The municipality, led by mayor Emir Kir (independent, former PS), has been under scrutiny from the Brussels-Capital Region for several months.
At the end of May, Brussels PS minister for local government Ahmed Laaouej launched a procedure to place the municipality under compulsory supervision, citing its worrying financial situation.
At the end of July, Saint-Josse-ten-Noode was then informed for a second time that its 2024 annual accounts had not been approved.
The municipal authority insists, however, that it had resolved all the issues raised at the end of March. It says further contacts then took place in the following months to provide additional explanations and supporting documents.
The lack of approval has major consequences for the municipality’s finances. It cannot adopt its 2026 budget until the 2024 accounts have been approved.
Without an approved budget, the commune is also unable to access regional funding. That means, for example, it cannot draw on the €150 million set aside at regional level for municipalities in difficulty.
In its statement, the municipality said the timing and accumulation of the decisions raised “serious questions” about how it was being treated and the purpose behind them.
It added that, taken together, the measures pointed increasingly to “a strategy to place Saint-Josse-ten-Noode in financial difficulty”.
The municipal executive also criticised what it called a continuing lack of dialogue with the regional authorities.
It said it now intends to use “all legal means at its disposal” to prevent what it described as a difficult but manageable financial situation, comparable to that of other municipalities, from being turned into grounds for compulsory supervision instead of being addressed through support and constructive dialogue.
