Digital: bridging the digital divide and administrative simplification

AI in business: Brussels below the Belgian average, despite the "AI capital" ambition (4 August 2026)

According to figures published on 4 August 2026 by BISA, the Brussels Institute for Statistics and Analysis, based on the Statbel ICT survey, more than a quarter of Brussels firms with at least two employees used at least one artificial intelligence technology in 2025.

The figure has to be read both ways. Brussels sits above the European average but below the Belgian average, while the Region promotes the ambition of becoming an artificial intelligence capital, written into the Regional Policy Declaration and set out in the regional roadmap presented on 22 and 23 June 2026.

The gap between small and large organisations is the striking point: seventy per cent among firms with more than 250 employees against twenty-five per cent among those with 2 to 9. Yet the Brussels economic fabric is overwhelmingly made up of very small firms. Uses differ too: internal management, accounting, finance, business analysis and candidate pre-screening in small firms, cybersecurity in large ones.

AI-based candidate pre-screening falls among the systems classified as high risk by the European AI Regulation, with specific information and human oversight obligations.

Sources: BRUZZ Economie (4 August 2026), citing BISA on the basis of the Statbel ICT survey. Confidence: official for the figures, produced by the regional statistical institute from a federal survey; the comparison with the Belgian and European averages is reproduced as published.

RPD commitments

The Regional Policy Declaration addresses the digital transition from several angles:

Digital divide

• Digital inclusion plan — support for digitally disadvantaged groups (seniors, newcomers, people in precarious situations)
• Public Digital Spaces — maintaining and strengthening the existing network
• Digital mediation — training municipal staff and social workers

Administrative simplification

• Easy Brussels — single digital window for regional administrative procedures
• IRISbox — online services platform, to be modernised and expanded
• "Only once" principle — stop asking citizens for data the administration already holds

Smart city

• Paradigm (CIRB) — regional IT centre, smart city strategy operator
• Open data — expansion of the regional open data portal
• Connectivity — wifi and 5G coverage in public spaces

Brussels as AI capital

• European positioning — attracting technology companies, in partnership with BeCentral and universities
• AI in government — targeted experiments to improve public services

Brussels Digital Ordinance (25 January 2024)

The Brussels Region, COCOM and COCOF jointly adopted on 25 January 2024 a joint decree and ordinance setting out the framework for the digital transition of Brussels public authorities. The text was published in the Belgian Official Journal on 21 February 2024 (No. 2024000830) and applies to regional, municipal and intermunicipal administrations and to the services of the Government and Parliament.

Citizen rights guaranteed by the text

The framework institutes six formal rights:

• carry out any administrative procedure online
• receive communications via eBox with registered value and certified date
• withdraw digital consent at any time
• benefit from support for online procedures
• access offline alternatives: physical counters, telephone, postal mail
• benefit from adapted access (persons with disabilities) and adapted opening hours

The text requires administrations to "maintain or develop the means of physical interaction" — it is not a simple optional alternative but a formal obligation. The European reference framework cited is eIDAS, the Web Accessibility Directive, and the Single Digital Gateway regulation.

Compliance timeline

• 6 months after entry into force for any new administrative procedure
• 60 months for compliance of existing procedures

Civil-society contestation and annulment appeal

The ordinance has been the subject of sustained contestation since September 2022, led notably by Lire et Écrire Bruxelles, MOC Bruxelles, Gang des Vieux en Colère, fedabxl and a set of 24+ actors (associations, umbrella organisations, trade unions). Mobilisation timeline:

• 8 September 2022 — symbolic "giant queue"
• 22-23 September 2022 — civil-society assembly, ~500 actors
• December 2022 — demonstration of ~1,000 people
• April-June 2023 — local assemblies (Anderlecht, Molenbeek, Schaerbeek, Ixelles)
• 10 October 2023 — 5th rally at Place de l'Albertine (~400 people)
• 12 January 2024 — parliamentary passage
• 2024: filing of an annulment appeal before the Constitutional Court.
• 25 September 2025: the Constitutional Court hands down ruling No. 126/2025. The annulment appeal is rejected, but the Court specifies that the three offline channels (physical counter, telephone, mail) are cumulative and mandatory, and that a "disproportionate burden" argument cannot be invoked to remove any one of them. This is the reading the organiser of the 23 April 2026 rally summarises as "ordinance as interpreted by the Constitutional Court".

Opponents argue that the text's guarantees are formal but not binding: no sanction for the absence of a counter, no density standard, no budget allocated to maintaining offline channels.

Figures on the digital divide (2022 Barometer)

The Digital Inclusion Barometer of the King Baudouin Foundation (2022 edition, cited by Lire et Écrire) notes that:

• 4 Brussels residents in 10 are in a situation of digital vulnerability
• 1 Belgian in 2 at the national level
• 75% of low-qualified persons encounter significant digital difficulties

The updated 2024 Barometer data show a slight decrease to 36% for the Brussels population aged 16-74 (see Mini-Bru section above) — but the concentration on low-qualified, elderly and precarious populations remains massive.

Rally 'L'humain d'abord !' (23 April 2026)

On Thursday 23 April 2026 from 10:00 to 17:00, a rally organised by Lire et Écrire Bruxelles was held at Place Fernand Cocq in Ixelles (1050). The publicly stated objective: "to exert significant pressure on the 19 Brussels municipalities" so that they comply with the ordinance as interpreted by the Constitutional Court. It is part of a cycle of mobilisations planned for spring 2026 (8 May: Coalition 8 Mai appeal; 12 May: national federal demonstration on pensions / Arizona, separate issue).

Sources: Belgian Official Journal (21 February 2024); be.brussels; Lire et Écrire; fedabxl; Lire et Ecrire, Constitutional Court ruling (26 September 2025). Confidence: official (legal framework, Constitutional Court ruling and Barometer data); unconfirmed (participant count at the 23 April 2026 rally).

Key agencies

• Paradigm (CIRB) — IT centre for the Brussels-Capital Region, technical operator
• Easy Brussels — administrative simplification agency
• IRISbox — online services platform

Physical Infrastructure: Data Centres

The 'AI capital' ambition relies on expanding physical infrastructure. The KevlinX BRU01 data centre (Neder-Over-Heembeek, 32 MW, ~150 jobs) has been operational since January 2026 within the Region's territory. Belgium's data centre electricity consumption is estimated at 3.2 TWh (4% of national electricity), with projections of 7 to 15.5 TWh by 2035. Data centres are absent from the PRDD and have no specific urban planning category.

Source: KevlinX, Elia, DPR 2026.

Structural data: Mini-Bru IBSA 2026

The Mini-Bru 2026 places Brussels at the forefront of digital in Belgium:

Brussels has the highest rate of advanced digital skills in the country and the strongest SME digital intensity, underpinned by an ecosystem of 28,111 ICT jobs.

Regional R&D reaches EUR 2,532.9M (2.45% of GDP), with 15,367 researchers (FTE) of whom 71.9% are in the private sector.

Source: BISA Mini-Bru 2026 (Statbel, Eurostat, Belspo, 2023-2025 data).

Innoviris freezes all new R&D projects (March 2026)

The regional research and innovation fund Innoviris has announced it will not launch any calls for proposals in 2026. Innoviris' budget falls from EUR 39M (2025) to EUR 30M (2026), a cut of around 23%.

Ongoing projects from 2025 will continue. Applications already submitted may be eligible in 2027, subject to available funding. Around 120 researchers from Brussels universities (VUB, ULB, UCLouvain, Ichec) co-signed an open letter in Le Soir denouncing the cut.

Impact on the digital sector:

• The freeze directly affects the digital innovation projects that Innoviris funded in partnership with Brussels universities and SMEs
• The RPD ambition to position Brussels as an "AI capital" is undermined by the loss of the public R&D lever, at least while no new funding is unlocked
• The regional R&D budget (EUR 2,532.9M, 2.45% of GDP) already fell below the European target of 3%
• The private sector accounts for 71.9% of researchers: without public co-funding, mixed projects (public-private) lose their rationale

The measure fits into the broader austerity context: Hub.brussels (international network cut by ⅔), Visit Brussels (subsidies 22→8M EUR), federal VAT increase. The Brussels innovation ecosystem is hit from four sides. As of 20 July 2026, no lifting of the freeze has been announced.

Sources: BX1 (7 April 2026); BRUZZ (27 March 2026).

Brussels as AI capital: "Brussels All.In" roadmap (22-23 June 2026)

Brussels' Minister for the Digital Economy, Laurent Hublet (Les Engagés), presented a regional roadmap for the "AI capital" ambition on 22-23 June 2026, at an event combining a presentation at the Volle Gas brewery with the "Off the Radar" artificial-intelligence event (Mix, Watermael-Boitsfort). Press reception was mixed: several observers noted the absence of concrete figures and targets, with a La Libre article citing the need for "figures, or [the plan] will be torn apart".

This roadmap sits alongside the Innoviris freeze described above: the stated AI-positioning ambition coexists with a suspension of the Region's main public research funding.

Sources: La Libre (22 June 2026); Forbes Belgique (4 July 2026). Confidence: official (ministerial announcement), with journalistic reservations about the plan's lack of detail.

Sources and methodology

The commitments documented above come from the official RPD text and corroborating press sources covering the government agreement of 12 February 2026.