In Brus­sels, while nego­tia­tions to form a govern­ment seem to take an eter­ni­ty, conti­nui­ty of devices essen­tial to meet the needs of the popu­la­tion is under serious threat. In the wake of an event rai­sed on the street of 25,000 people on Novem­ber 7, the non-pro­fit sec­tor denounces the lack of pers­pec­tives that sur­round the fun­ding of a large pro­por­tion of their shares as of the 1^st Janua­ry 2025. Fault war­ran­ty with res­pect to these grants so-cal­led “optio­nal”, by the end of the year, many public ser­vice mis­sions will be redu­ced or stop­ped, with a direct impact on jobs, the bene­fi­cia­ries and their fami­lies but also on the crea­tion of wealth within the brus­sels Region. In a context of pover­ty increa­sed and mul­ti­pli­ca­tion situa­tions of social dis­tress, Brus­sels must take res­pon­si­bi­li­ty of any emer­gen­cy and needs to ensure the sus­tai­na­bi­li­ty of the core acti­vi­ties per­for­med by the non-pro­fit sector. 

A sector that is essential and not optional

Since the elec­tions held on 9 June last, all of the orga­ni­za­tions and enter­prises that are not com­mer­cial­ly sup­por­ted by grants are always han­ging to the rhythm of the leng­thy nego­tia­tions for the for­ma­tion of the next govern­ment. In addi­tion to a consi­de­rable num­ber of people employed, with fun­ding from refer­ring to it, this are the hun­dreds of thou­sands of reci­pients of aid and the care with which the accom­pa­niment is aban­do­ned to the uncertainty.

If no deci­sion is taken now to secure this fun­ding beyond 31 Decem­ber, it is a social disas­ter that announ­ce­ment. It will affect eve­ryone, and in par­ti­cu­lar the most vul­ne­rable people. Very spe­ci­fi­cal­ly, and by way of example, if no bud­get pro­vi­sion is taken from the month of Janua­ry 2025, more than 2,000 people home­less, cur­rent­ly hou­sed in the emer­gen­cy centres fun­ded by annual grants that will go the next day without hos­ting solution.

It is also a mul­ti­tude of ser­vices to help the per­son who will be sus­pen­ded. With, as a corol­la­ry, the effects of trans­fers from one ser­vice to the other or to the fami­ly, the degra­da­tion of the health and living condi­tions of the most disad­van­ta­ged people, increase the risk of disaf­fi­lia­tion social, employ­ment losses. And so the future cost signi­fi­cant­ly more impor­tant at the expense of the regio­nal bud­get. Alrea­dy hea­vi­ly under pres­sure, it is the ope­ra­tion of the non-mar­ket sec­tor in its enti­re­ty, which is imme­dia­te­ly threatened. 

Who is res­pon­sible for the conse­quences of the lack of sup­port of the public more pre­ca­rious, people with disa­bi­li­ties, vic­tims of sexual vio­lence, people with men­tal health ser­vices, the fight against traf­fi­cking and smug­gling in human beings, pre­ven­tion of addic­tions, or the exer­cise of cultu­ral rights, which gua­ran­tees the demo­cra­tic func­tio­ning of a society ? 

A guarantee of funding urgent and compelling

The non-dea­ler is not a luxu­ry, it is essen­tial. During the cri­sis, COVID, the sec­tor has pro­ven its cen­tral role in mee­ting the basic needs of the citi­zens. Today, it conti­nues to face cri­ti­cal chal­lenges in the field of social and pro­fes­sio­nal inte­gra­tion, pre­ven­tion and secu­ri­ty, the fight against pover­ty and inequa­li­ty, and it ensures access to essen­tial ser­vices such as health care, social cohe­sion, help at home, the culture or even the trai­ning and health of all wor­kers. By doing this, the non-dea­ler is also a cru­cial role in the eco­no­mic deve­lop­ment of the Region and it sup­ports the reduc­tion of future costs rela­ted to the health, safe­ty, secu­ri­ty, and unem­ploy­ment, while inves­ting in future gene­ra­tions through the crea­tion of local jobs that can­not be relocated. 

We ask the autho­ri­ties in brus­sels (RBC, COCOF, COCOM, VGC) to hear this call and to pre­serve the sup­ply of ser­vices of exis­ting devices. Pen­ding deci­sions on the sta­tus and the struc­tu­ral conti­nui­ty of these grants, the situa­tion qui­ck­ly imple­ment both a tem­po­ra­ry fra­me­work allo­wing for the exten­sion and the pay­ment by Janua­ry 2025 finan­cing cur­rent until the conclu­sion of the bud­get of the new exe­cu­tive, but also their reten­tion in the fra­me­work of the bud­get 2025. This choice and this pre­dic­ta­bi­li­ty is nee­ded so com­pel­ling : it is to prevent the popu­la­tion to pay for the conse­quences, imme­diate and catas­tro­phic of the cur­rent situa­tion of busi­ness. There is not a second to lose. 

#Non­Mar­chand­Vi­tal

The list of signatories