Seven Walloon towns in financial difficulty refused access to credit

Seven Walloon towns in financial difficulty have been refused access to borrowing, leaving the Walloon government with a €268 million black hole to fill in its finances.

Belgium’s ING bank, the only bank that had agreed to support Wallonia's "Oxygène" funding plan to lend money to struggling municipalities, said it would not help Liège, Charleroi, Mons, Ath, Namur, La Louvière and Verviers.

This means that the Walloon government must find a new way of finding the hundreds of millions of euros needed for the 2024 budget.

The Oxygène global aid plan was adopted in November 2021 by Wallonia’s government to help 28 Walloon towns and municipalities including Dinant, Huy and Mouscron.

The plan authorises communes to take out a loan repayable over 30 years to balance their budgets for five years (2022-2026), subject to certain terms and conditions

Under this plan, the Walloon region, via the Centre régional d’aide aux communes (CRAC), wanted to raise €350 million from banks this year.

Only ING responded to the tender, but for just €82 million, less than a quarter of the sum required. The bank also set conditions and refused to finance these seven towns. Liège and Charleroi had already been excluded in 2023.

The Walloon region now needs to find €268 million to complete its planned budget.

Local authorities minister François Desquesnes told L'Écho that he was working “discreetly” to find a solution. He also called for solidarity “from the federal government”, particularly with regard to CPAS (social security) and pension costs.