16 November 2025
By Kadir Duran • Bruxelles Korner

Brussels is facing one of the most severe financial crises in its recent history. Warning signs, long ignored, are now unmistakable: at the current pace, the Region’s coffers could be empty by April 2026.

In the corridors of the Parliament, some are already joking not without bitterness: “Several regional MPs may have to look for another job in January 2026,” given how years of mismanagement, lack of vision, and repeated budgetary mistakes have dangerously weakened the regional government.

A Budgetary Machine Running Out of Breath

What experts, analysts and financial institutions had feared is now happening: Brussels is on the verge of a liquidity crisis.

The official alarm was sounded by Brussels’ caretaker Finance Minister, Dirk De Smedt (Open VLD), who publicly acknowledged that:

revenues are too irregular,
structural deficits grow deeper each year,
the treasury is no longer sufficient to absorb ordinary expenses.

According to him, as early as this spring, the Region may no longer be able to pay its most basic obligations: suppliers, subsidies, and even essential public services.

Banks Pull the Emergency Brake

Another shock comes from the financial sector.

Banks traditionally cautious but rarely alarmist when dealing with public entities are slowly stepping back:

Belfius refuses to extend its credit line beyond 31 December.
ING is reaching the end of its own credit line, with no guarantee of renewal.

These credit lines were the last lifeline for an already depleted treasury. Their withdrawal signals an exceptional level of distrust toward a public authority and a warning with potentially dramatic consequences.

An Emergency Committee… With Almost No Room to Act

Facing the urgency, the minister convened the Financial Strategy Committee, tasked with:

stabilising the treasury,
securing access to financing,
preparing scenarios in case credit is fully cut off.

But in a Region under caretaker government, without any budget majority, and paralyzed by political deadlock, options are severely limited.

Emergency measures alone are unlikely to be enough without a solid political agreement which remains out of reach for now.

Opposition Accuses the Government of “Budgetary Sabotage”

CD&V MP Benjamin Dalle summed up the situation bluntly:

“From April onwards, the Brussels Region’s coffers could be empty.”

He accuses the six parties involved in negotiations of blocking any form of budgetary accord, leaving Brussels navigating blindly into danger.

For Dalle, the current political paralysis worsens the financial crisis and directly endangers the capital’s stability.

Massive Political Responsibility

Years of uncontrolled spending, inability to curb deficits, and repeated failures to adopt credible budgets: the Region is now paying the price of a decade of shaky compromises and successive governments with no clear direction.

A term is increasingly circulating in economic and political circles: “political bankruptcy.”

And the verdict in 2026 could be brutal. Citizens will demand accountability, and some elected officials widely criticised for their lack of vision and inability to reform may indeed have to consider a career change.

A Spring Full of Danger

Without a solid agreement in the coming weeks, Brussels may:

permanently lose access to bank financing,
become unable to honour its financial commitments,
run out of cash as early as April 2026.

For a European capital, such an outcome would be unprecedented with massive political consequences.

Beyond party quarrels, the credibility and stability of Brussels are now at stake.