Belgian parties agree on poor compromise

More than two months after Belgium's parliamentary elections the Walloon socialists and the Flemish nationalists have made a breakthrough in their coalition talks. The regions will now have more financial autonomy, as the Flemish had demanded, and in return the less affluent Walloons will receive guarantees of financial solidarity. Not a good compromise, writes the daily De Morgen: "Above all when it comes time to putting all these fine principles into practice, it will become clear that they are not only contradictory but also more or less mutually exclusive, and the guarantees of greater autonomy and higher revenues will be dashed by the assurances of solidarity and measures to stop impoverishment. ... You can't give more money to both the regions and the federal state, as well as Brussels to boot, because the money is simply not there. To put it bluntly: this mountain of principles will at best release merely a trickle of money."

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