Flemish budget talks reach final phase as deadline slips
The Flemish government entered the decisive stretch of its 2027 budget negotiations on Sunday, with Vice-Minister-President and Finance Minister Ben Weyts (N-VA) the first to arrive at the Martelaarsplein in Brussels — and the first to concede that the coalition’s positions remain far apart.
“It is evident, given the exercise we have to undertake, that opinions and starting points are beginning to clash,” Weyts said, confirming that N-VA, Vooruit and CD&V have yet to converge. He insisted that a balanced budget for 2027 and subsequent years remains the ambition. According to VRT NWS, an agreement is not expected before the following night.
A deal expected — but not yet delivered
The three-party coalition — the centre-right N-VA, the socialists of Vooruit, and the Christian democrats of CD&V — must find between 1.6 and 1.9 billion euros to bring the 2027 budget toward balance. Early reports had cited a range of 1.5 to 2 billion euros.
Flemish Minister-President Matthias Diependaele (N-VA) struck an optimistic tone as the round opened, saying the atmosphere around the table was fine and that work was proceeding seriously. “It is quite an exercise, but hard work is being done,” he said. “We know there are many needs, but we also know the budgets are not always there.” Asked whether his team would reach a deal, he replied that this remained the goal and that he had “received no signals that it will not succeed.”
The negotiations reached their final phase after a turbulent week. On Friday, talks were suspended for several hours before resuming in the evening; on Saturday, Diependaele met coalition partners separately before convening all ministers in a session that ran into the night. Negotiations resumed at noon on Sunday.
What is on the table
According to a VRT NWS explainer, four large blocks are under consideration: a more efficient government with fewer staff and greater use of automation and AI; a “user pays” principle that would raise the cost of service vouchers (dienstencheques); a sweeping review of subsidies to civil society, municipalities and companies; and tighter scrutiny of social benefits, including measures to tackle abuse in child benefits. Some 30 to 40 further measures are also being weighed, with no amounts yet attached.
Several specific proposals have drawn fire. A plan to raise the water bill by 40 to 60 euros per household per year — potentially yielding 80 million euros or more — has been met with outright resistance from CD&V. “Burdening families once again with a higher water bill? That is a breach of contract,” Environment Minister Jo Brouns (CD&V) said. Vooruit’s Melissa Depraetere, a vice-minister-president, argued the coalition still had “a whole weekend to make the budget proposal better and fairer” so that “not everything lands on the same people.”
A proposal to replace the roughly 1,300-euro birth grant in the Groeipakket child benefit scheme with a “Flemish Growth Fund” — invested and projected to grow to about 4,400 euros by a child’s 18th birthday — has been coolly received by both Vooruit and CD&V. Welfare Minister Caroline Gennez (Vooruit) called it “a little idea” and stressed that “every child should keep their child benefit,” describing the issue as vital in the fight against child poverty. Education Minister Zuhal Demir (N-VA) said she wanted to shield schools from further cuts by looking for savings elsewhere in her portfolio.
The strain behind the numbers
The scale of the exercise is reflected in the wider fiscal picture. As Trends reported, Finance Minister Weyts has put a sanitation exercise of about 2.5 billion euros on the table. The publication noted that any 2027 balance may well prove temporary, because new expenditures planned for after 2027 would push the accounts back into deficit.
The pressure is being felt well beyond the negotiating room. Margot Cloet of the healthcare umbrella Zorgnet-Icuro warned that her sector had no cushion left. “It feels as though we are in the eye of the storm,” she said. “There is no fat left on the soup.” The broad cultural sector likewise cautioned that further cuts — reportedly around 10 percent — would hit employment and accessibility.
Deadline slips to Wednesday
The government had initially aimed to seal the deal by the night of Sunday 27 September, ahead of Diependaele’s traditional Septemberverklaring — the annual policy statement tied to the budget — on Monday 28 September. That deadline now appears to have slipped. The Vlaams Parlement has scheduled the plenary debate on the Septemberverklaring for Wednesday 30 September, with the debate beginning at 14:00 and a vote at 16:00.
The delay is not without precedent: the Septemberverklaring was also postponed in 2019 and 2022, when budget deadlock gripped the previous government led by Jan Jambon.
The squeeze in Flanders mirrors pressure at the federal level, where Prime Minister Bart De Wever’s “Arizona” coalition is seeking roughly 10 billion euros. Federal talks were paused over the weekend, with a conclave expected toward the end of the coming week.
What to watch
For now, all eyes remain on the Martelaarsplein. Whether the coalition can bridge its divisions over water bills, child benefits, service vouchers and subsidies will determine the shape of the Septemberverklaring. If N-VA, Vooruit and CD&V cannot agree by Wednesday, the government risks heading into its annual policy debate without a settled budget — an outcome that would deepen questions about the cohesion of an ideologically diverse coalition that has yet to face a fiscal test this severe.