Background information

The mission of the Centre is to help self-employed and business leaders to take stock of their professional situation, anticipate difficulties and help with a restart. As well as come up with new solutions to problems they face (good relationship between the partners, commercial conflicts, cash problems, personnel concerns, etc.), if necessary, help of experts is available.

It is available to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the region of Brussels.

Content of measure

The Centre for Enterprises in Difficulty (CED) provides help and advice for business owners and self-employed people in the Brussels region. Its services include collective information and advice sessions twice a week; a professional diagnosis of the situation; one-on-one advice on management; strategy; finance; tax; commercial and social law, and a free confidential helpline that is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The centre searches and selects coaches/advisors that can assist enterprises with their difficulty.

Following the COVID-19 crisis, the Brussels regional government decided to increase funding for the centre with €200 000, in order to provide more and better aid to companies that are in need.

Funding is provided by the regional government of Brussels, the Chambre of Commerce of Brussels as well as the accounting associations, federation of Notaries, Crédal Solidarity Bank, Question Santé and Partena.

Use of measure

Responses to this service grow, as firms facing difficulty begin to ask for help.

The agency in Brussels meets approximately 2,000 applicants every year that are interested in their services (2019).

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Self-employed Other groups of workers		Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
Other social actors (e.g. NGOs) Local / regional government	Employers organisation Regional funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Unknown	Unknown
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: N/A

Involvement

Unknown

Views and reactions

Unknown

Sources

• 01 January 2015: European Commission Enterprise and Industry. Small Business Act-Database of Good Practices  (ec.europa.eu)
• 01 January 2015: Centre pour Entreprises en difficulté – Centrum voor Ondernemingen in moelijkheden (www.beci.be)