With the Brussels and Walloon regions permanently struggling for money, Van Rompuy looks to Flanders for help. Nothing unusual so far. However, his warning that there is "no room for fighting federalism" indicates that he is not too sure that Flanders will lend a helping hand this time. Now that is new.

In Belgium, there is no hierarchy between the federal and regional level and that of the communities. In theory that is - in the past, the regions and communities have always been "co-operative". As they were usually governed by the same parties that also made up the federal coalition, they always did what was expected of them.

Things have changed, though. With competences such as Education, Employment and Economy and more means flowing to the regional level, it has become harder and harder to shove the regions and communities aside. The 2004 Flemish government agreement even included a passage about Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde, the bilingual constituency Flanders wants to see split. In that case, Flanders was telling the federal level what to do, a remarkable reversal of roles.

What worries Van Rompuy most is the "assertive Flemish policy" (best to remember that phrase, too) the nationalist N-VA wants to introduce. This boils down to Flanders assuming its competences to a maximum degree and basically telling the federal government to back off.

The Flemish government starving out the federal government; it probably won't come this far. CD&V and SP.A, set to be part of the Flemish coalition, will not let this happen because, for one, the federal level is responsible for the legal pensions being paid out. Also CD&V has nothing to gain with an open struggle between its two leaders, Van Rompuy and minister-president Kris Peeters.

As Marianne Thyssen, the CD&V party president, said: the federal government, that's us too.