A communiqué from the Royal Palace reveals that the 'préformateur' - the politician appointed by the king to explore the feasibility of forming a government, in this case the leader of the French-speaking socialists Elio di Rupo - will restart his mission tomorrow (21 August).
His task will be to deepen consultations on two matters: "autonomy and making the federal entities responsible for their new attributions and allowing each entity to prosper, as well as the long-term financing of the federal state for the competences and obligations it would continue to assume".
This rather complicated language translates into a transfer of budgetary competencies from the federal state to Belgium's linguistic entities, which is still being negotiated and amounts to 15.8 billion euros.
Reportedly, so-called 'responsabilisation', or making the entities responsible for their new attributions, is understood differently by each of Belgium's three 'communities'.
Sanctions and bonuses
The Flemish parties see this as attributing financing pro rata according to taxes paid by physical persons, which poorer Wallonia sees as unacceptable. A complex system of bonuses and sanctions is being discussed, which is seen by some as more fair but is still rejected as a trap by some Walloon politicians.
Jean-Benoît Pilet, political scientist at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), noted that there had been no link previously between the amount of funding attributed to the federal entities and the results of their utilisation.
He cited as an example funds for overcoming unemployment, which up to now had been allocated without taking into account how this had impacted on fighting unemployment.
In addition, determining the future of BHV, the bi-lingual electoral district of Brussels-Hal-Vilvoorde, appears to be a sine qua non condition for forming a new cabinet. The 100,000 or so French speakers who live on the city's margins enjoy special privileges, like being able to cast their ballot in BHV.
But the Dutch-speaking parties oppose this privilege and have called for the district to be split into separate entities between Brussels proper and the Flemish municipalities.
Concessions on BHV are expected from the French-speaking side, but it is unclear what their scope will be.
