Brussels: since 1 January 2026 you need at least a Euro 6 diesel or a Euro 3 petrol car to drive in the 19 municipalities. Fine of €350, day pass at €35 (24 times a year maximum).
Flanders: the LEZs in Antwerp and Ghent were not tightened. On 28 November 2025 the Flemish Government scrapped the tightenings planned for 2026 and 2028 — Euro 5 diesels and Euro 2 petrol cars keep their access.
Wallonia: no LEZ at all. The regional decree was repealed on 26 April 2024 without ever having been applied.
What exactly is a low emission zone?
A low emission zone (LEZ) is an area where access for the most polluting vehicles is restricted or banned. The criterion is neither the car's apparent age nor the fuel alone: it is the Euro standard, the European emissions class assigned to your vehicle at type approval.
Three things to know about how it works:
- No barriers, but cameras. Enforcement runs on automatic number plate recognition (ANPR). You will not know you are in breach until the letter arrives.
- 24/7. There is no tolerance window: nights, weekends and public holidays all count.
- It is a regional and municipal competence. Hence the current patchwork: each region — and in Flanders each city — sets its own rules and tariffs.
Where do you find your Euro standard? On the European certificate of conformity (COC) and, for most vehicles, on the registration certificate, field V.9. Failing that, the date of first registration gives a good indication: a Euro 5 diesel roughly matches a registration between 2011 and 2015, with Euro 6 starting from September 2015. If in doubt, each administration offers a free online plate check.
Three regions, three opposing logics
This is the point most articles miss: in 2026 there is no longer a "Belgian rule". There are three diverging policies — and this year they diverged further.
Brussels: the 1 January 2026 crackdown
The Brussels-Capital Region operates an LEZ across its entire territory — the 19 municipalities, except the ring road and a few transit axes. It is by far the strictest regime in the country, and it just moved up a notch.
Who has been excluded since 1 January 2026
Since that date, the following can no longer drive in the Brussels LEZ:
- cars, vans, buses and lorries running on diesel of Euro 5 and below — you now need at least a Euro 6;
- vehicles running on petrol, LPG or CNG of Euro 2 and below — at least Euro 3 is required;
- petrol motorcycles that are not at least Euro 3.
Brussels Environment estimated the measure at roughly 7% of the vehicle fleet circulating in the region, or some 225,000 unique vehicles per quarter, of which around 33,000 are registered in the capital itself. Fully electric and hydrogen vehicles face no restriction at all.
The fine regime: phased, but real
The Brussels government paired this tightening with a phase-in rather than an immediate penalty:
⚠️ Foreign plate: registration is mandatory. Every vehicle registered outside Belgium must register free of charge online at lez.brussels, ideally before entering the region. If you don't, the fine is €150 — even if the vehicle fully meets the standards. This is the most common trap for French, Dutch and German visitors.
The passes: driving in legally anyway
If your vehicle doesn't comply but you occasionally need to enter Brussels, the day pass exists:
- €35 per day for a car or van, €20 for a motorcycle;
- 24 passes per year maximum per number plate;
- to be bought online at lez.brussels, at the latest the day after the trip.
The Brussels government has also announced an annual pass of €350, with a reduced social rate for low-income households, which would let Euro 5 diesels and Euro 2 petrol cars keep driving against payment. Be careful: at the time this article was published that annual pass was not yet actually available — the €350 figure is currently the amount of the fine. Check the state of play on lez.brussels before counting on it.
And then? The roadmap to 2035
Brussels has written a gradual exit from internal combustion into its regulations: end of diesel around 2030 and end of petrol around 2035, targeting near-zero direct emissions for virtually all motorised vehicles by around 2036. The intermediate milestones are published as a calendar per vehicle category on the official site. Worth factoring in if you buy a used car today intending to keep it for eight years.
Flanders: the tightening cancelled at the last minute
This is the reversal of the year, and it went relatively unnoticed. Flanders has no region-wide LEZ: only Antwerp and Ghent operate one, within a framework set by the Flemish Government.
Both cities were due to tighten their criteria on 1 January 2026: only Euro 6 diesels and Euro 3 petrol cars would have kept free access. A second tightening was scheduled for 2028.
On 28 November 2025, the Flemish Government decided to scrap both tightenings outright — the amending order entered into force on 15 December 2025. The reason given by the competent minister: air quality standards are now being met everywhere, which makes further tightening unnecessary.
Free access for vehicles running on diesel of Euro 5 or higher and for vehicles running on petrol, LPG, CNG or LNG of Euro 2 or higher. Electric and hydrogen vehicles have unconditional access. Below those thresholds, access remains possible via a paid admission or a day pass, whose tariffs and annual limits are set by each city.
In other words: a Euro 5 diesel that has just been excluded from Brussels can still enter Antwerp and Ghent freely. An air quality review is scheduled for 2027; that is when the question of tightening will return to the table. Local authorities have also been given more latitude to grant individual exemptions taking owners' financial situations into account.
Beware of outdated sources. Many web pages — including official city press releases published before December 2025 — still announce the "Euro 6 diesel / Euro 3 petrol on 1 January 2026" tightening. It has been cancelled. When in doubt, test your plate on the official Antwerp and Ghent portals rather than trusting a dated article.
Wallonia: the LEZ that never was
In 2019 Wallonia adopted a decree introducing a low emission zone across its entire regional territory, with a phased calendar from 2023: Euro 1 in 2023, Euro 2 in 2024, Euro 3 in 2025, Euro 4 in 2026, Euro 5 in 2028 and Euro 6 in 2030.
That calendar was never applied: the required implementing orders were not published. On 26 April 2024, the Walloon Parliament voted to repeal the scheme, relying on two studies showing that pollution exceedances are "highly localised, at the level of specific streets" and that a blanket ban across the whole territory would be disproportionate — penalising in particular rural residents, who are less well served by public transport and less able to buy a recent vehicle.
Concrete consequence in 2026: driving an old diesel remains perfectly legal everywhere in Wallonia. One caveat — municipalities retain the power to introduce local traffic restrictions across all or part of their territory. If you live or work in a large Walloon city, it is worth checking municipal decisions before a long-term purchase.
The summary: does my car get in?
The table below crosses the most common Euro standards with the three regimes. It applies to passenger cars (category M1); vans, buses and lorries follow related but separate calendars.
| Your vehicle | Brussels | Antwerp & Ghent | Wallonia |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electric / hydrogen | ✅ Free | ✅ Free | ✅ Free |
| Petrol Euro 4, 5, 6 | ✅ Free | ✅ Free | ✅ Free |
| Petrol Euro 3 | ✅ Free | ✅ Free | ✅ Free |
| Petrol Euro 2 | ⛔ Banned | ✅ Free | ✅ Free |
| Diesel Euro 6 | ✅ Free | ✅ Free | ✅ Free |
| Diesel Euro 5 | ⛔ Banned | ✅ Free | ✅ Free |
| Diesel Euro 4 and below | ⛔ Banned | ⛔ Paid / day pass | ✅ Free |
The emblematic case of 2026 is the highlighted row: the Euro 5 diesel, typically a car registered between 2011 and 2015. Banned from Brussels since January, it drives without constraint in Antwerp, Ghent and everywhere in Wallonia. Exactly that kind of vehicle is now flooding the used market — and its value increasingly depends on which region the buyer lives in.
Your vehicle is excluded: your options
What to keep in mind before buying
If you live or work in Brussels: diesel is a dead end in the medium term. A Euro 6 buys you a few years, no more. Euro 6 petrol or electric are the only choices that hold beyond 2030.
If you live in Flanders: regulatory pressure has just eased a notch. Nothing forces you to change vehicle before the 2027 review — but expect the question to return, and expect your car to need to enter Brussels one day.
If you live in Wallonia: no regional constraint, and that is structural (the decree was repealed, not suspended). The only blind spots are municipal decisions and, again, trips into Brussels.
If you are buying used: the Euro standard now weighs as heavily as mileage on resale value. A Euro 5 diesel sells well in the provinces and much less well in Brussels — an opportunity for the Walloon or Flemish buyer, a risk for the Brussels seller.