Flanders to roll back vehicle technical inspection rules

The Flemish Government has proposed a reform that will reduce the frequency of mandatory vehicle technical inspections for a range of vehicle categories from 1 September 2026, with the dossier currently before Belgium’s Council of State for an advisory opinion.

The reform would move passenger cars over 10 years old or with more than 160,000 km from annual to biennial inspection, alongside reductions in inspection frequency for several other vehicle categories including vans, taxis, ambulances, buses and agricultural vehicles. The repair period for vehicles failing inspection with major defects would be extended from 15 days to two months. 

Vehicle inspection is a devolved competence in Belgium, so the reform applies only in Flanders; Wallonia and Brussels have not announced equivalent steps.

ETSC has criticised the proposal. “Flanders has worked hard to improve its road safety performance in recent years, and that work has shown real results. This reform threatens to undo some of that progress by putting Flanders into the minority of EU jurisdictions that do not require annual technical inspections for older vehicles. Flanders should be aiming to maintain and strengthen its road safety position, not to downgrade it,” said Ellen Townsend, Policy Director at ETSC.

ETSC has argued in the parallel debate at EU level on the revision of the EU’s roadworthiness package that introducing annual technical inspections for cars over 10 years old in the 11 EU Member States that do not currently require it could prevent around 74 deaths and 850 severe injuries each year, and that the Commission’s impact assessment showed a strong revision of the package could prevent around 7,000 road deaths and 65,000 serious injuries by 2050. The Flemish reform moves in the opposite direction.