In the absence of a new executive, the Federal Government will convene on Monday a cabinet meeting (known as kern) to discuss a provisional budget, announced the spokesperson for Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.
In the absence of a full-fledged government, no executive currently has the power to establish the federal budget for 2025. In consultation with formator for the new government, Bart De Wever, De Croo is working towards adopting provisional twelfths for the first three months of next year.
Twelfths are a budgetary technique to finance the government's public spending in the absence of an approved annual budget. It stipulates that 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. This mechanism will cease once the new government is installed.
Health on the table
The five parties currently negotiating the formation of the next Federal Government still aim to conclude a coalition agreement by the end of the year. However, no one is willing to specify a date. The likelihood of passing a budget seems slim within this time frame, even though there are suggestions of continuing work through the year-end holidays.
The health care budget will also be discussed on Monday. At the end of October, the General Council of the National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (Inami) was unable to decide on the 2025 budget negotiated by mutual societies and health care providers.
Within the government, the Flemish liberals Open VLD refused to approve this budget, while their French-speaking counterparts MR abstained. Prime Minister De Croo remarked that approving this measure is the responsibility of the future government, a view contested by Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke (Vooruit).
