Federal cash meant to secure Brussels during European summits was spent on a Disneyland trip, bin bags, a launderette and public toilets, according to Liberal MP Denis Ducarme.
Since 2012 the Brussels-Capital Region has received €55 million a year from the federal government to cover security costs tied to European events.
From 2022 that Fonds des Sommets européens has been split: €35 million for police zones and €20 million for the communes.
Ducarme, after months of Finance Inspectorate letters and warnings from senior officials, says a large slice never reached the streets to improve security.
In 2020, for example, Brussels allocated €828,000 to the Brussels Social Housing Corporation (SLRB).
The Inspectorate of Finance (FI) issued a notice on this decision at the time, stating: “This expenditure can hardly be considered as falling within the category of expenditure related to the security of the European Summits in Brussels and expenditure on security.”
It continued noting that “Since 2012, the FPS Interior no longer has any direct visibility on the concrete use of resources.”
Later, the same concern reached Interior minister Annelies Verlinden (CD&V), when the Finance Inspectorate was looking at money released by royal decree for a Brussels cyber-security centre.
The centre was budgeted at €3 million. It was never built.
Brussels Prevention & Security’s 2021 report showed €2,282,188 of that sum going to the municipalities, a use the Inspectorate said “does not appear to conform” to the decree of 27 December 2021.
Another example is €3 million for security in public transportation, that was used for “a more proactive human presence”, including the installation of toilets in the stations, and to offer meals to homeless people.
In February 2023, the then Brussels minister-president, Rudi Vervoort (PS) told the Liberal Secretary of State for the Budget of the Belgian government, Alexia Bertrand that there was an accounting slip, without effect on the amounts granted in fine to projects”.
“Since 2022, the funds of the European Summits, the amounts devoted to the municipalities normally allocated to security and prevention would be used as a source of general funding for municipal expenditure, in particular to cover staff costs and miscellaneous costs,” Denis Ducarme told newspaper La DH, citing confidential sources in place in the administrations.
He will seek hearings in the Interior committee.
The money, he argues, could have gone to the fights against the narcotics trade instead of “unacceptable” running costs.
The Inspectorate’s paper trail includes items such as garbage bags, sanitary equipment or cleaning and maintenance products.
Also mentioned are books, journals and other documents “unmoved from prevention”, as well as certain miscellaneous costs such as delivery costs, financial costs (taxes, late payments and bank charges) and costs related to the sharing of a fixed item of the communication network.
Most controversially, there is also a trip to Disneyland Pars as an expense.
Other expenses are stoves, washing machines, and vacuum cleaners, as well as the installation of a laundry facility intended to serve isolated individuals.
Among the expenses with no clear or direct link to the grant’s objectives are undistributed ALE checks (vouchers issued through a local employment too pay for small jobs), expenses for homework centers, and clothing lacking a recognisable logo of the relevant service.
Ducarme calls it waste of taxpayer’s money.
Brussels remains the EU’s capital and a city that records dozens of drug shootings a year.
Police zones are tight. SIAMU, the fire service, is chronically underfunded.
Brussels is experiencing a relentless surge in severe violence, marked by a high number of shootings, prompting the public prosecutor to raise the alarm. https://t.co/mLUAhELKMm
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) August 13, 2025
