Low emission zones in Flanders: Government stops tightening and risks air quality!
The planned ban on older diesel and petrol vehicles in Flanders is postponed. Originally, diesel Euro5 and petrol Euro2 vehicles were to be banned from entering Antwerp and Ghent in less than 4 months. Now the government has postponed these tightening measures by one year and completely suspended all further bans.
Automatic camera systems and continuous tightening: Drivers have recently had a hard time in Belgium's low emission zones. In Brussels, diesel Euro4 vehicles have no longer been allowed to enter since 2022, and in Flanders this regulation has been in place even longer. In the case of petrol cars, too, the three environmental zones with a ban on Euro1 are at least stricter than their German neighbours, for example. Older vehicles can only get access to the low emission zones via so-called day passes in order to avoid a fine.
But now the government in Flanders has postponed the bans, which were supposed to come in January 2025, by one year and completely cancelled further tightening in 2027 and 28. Instead, at the end of 2026, the government wants to carry out air measurements to check whether stricter rules are needed.
In fact, air quality in Flanders has improved recently. Last summer, air quality in Flanders was nevertheless only in the European midfield, according to the European Environment Agency. Professor Roeland Samson of the University of Antwerp said at the time that the dense population, the enormous volume of traffic and also the strong presence of industry in Flanders continued to cause high concentrations of particulate matter and nitrogen oxides.
With the suspended tightening, the local government is also giving its own public transport system more time to switch to clean diesel buses. Although the operator De Lijn wants to be fully electric by 2035, it does not currently have the necessary funding from the state. Similar to Germany, where many environmental zones have already been abolished, the Belgian government is thus reacting very quickly to the improvement of air quality instead of setting more ambitious targets, for example. After all, the European limit values are significantly higher than the values classified as safe by the World Health Organisation.
After all, the government in Flanders wants to continue working towards zero-emission zones and ban diesel vehicles in 2031 and petrol cars in 2035. Then only electric vehicles would be allowed in the cities of Antwerp and Ghent.
Whether the environmental zone in Brussels will stick to its current roadmap and the zone in Wallonia will come next year as planned, or whether the local governments will be influenced by the decision in Flanders, you will of course find out from us in the blog.