What is a Low Emission Zone (LEZ)?
The road sign displayed on the right indicates the start of a Low Emission Zone. However, these signs are relatively small and can easily be overlooked. As such, some cities provide additional signs with more information and others refer to a website. Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras (ANPR) generally enforce the Low Emission Zones. These cameras read the number plates, which are then matched in a database to verify whether this car is allowed to enter the zone.
Cars may enter the zones with a foreign license plate as long as you register the car within a certain time frame. If you are not from Belgium and have not registered your car in time, it is possible to get a fine even if your car meets the necessary criteria to enter the zone. It is therefore best to look into this in advance.
If your car does not meet the emission norm, you can pay for an exception of one day. This is however limited to certain amount of days per year.
How can Waze help you?
Low Emission Zones were added to the app at the start of 2019. You will get a notification when you start a drive towards an address located in one of these low emission zones. This notification asks you to confirm that you verified your access to this area. Because there are so many different rules, Waze is sadly unable to help with the verification process within the app. We will however try to help you further on this page.
Low Emission Zones in Belgium
Please be aware that this page describes the situation as it is at the start of February in 2020. Therefore, these rules may no longer be up to date when you read this. We will however try to keep this page up to date. Therefore, make sure to get the latest information on the websites of the corresponding cities!
Antwerp and Ghent
| Euro norm | Diesel | Petrol, LPG or CNG |
|---|---|---|
| None | Day pass only | Day pass only |
| Euro 1 | Day pass only | Day pass only |
| Euro 2 | Day pass only | |
| Euro 3 | Day pass only | |
| Euro 4 | After a payment | |
| Euro 5 | ||
| Euro 6 |
You must register your vehicle if it has a foreign number plate. However, this does not include vehicles from The Netherlands as the Dutch government has shared the necessary data. Registration is free online, but must be made at the latest 24 hours after entering the zone. A registration counts for both cities at the same time.
The rules in Antwerp and Ghent will become more strict in 2026. Firstly, EURO norm 3 will become the new minimum for petrol cars. Secondly, EURO norm 6 will become the minimum for diesel cars.
More information: https://lez.antwerpen.be/ and https://stad.gent/en/mobility-ghent/low-emission-zone-ghent.
Brussels
| Euro norm | Diesel | Petrol, LPG or CNG |
|---|---|---|
| None | Day pass only | Day pass only |
| Euro 1 | Day pass only | Day pass only |
| Euro 2 | Day pass only | |
| Euro 3 | Day pass only | |
| Euro 4 | Day pass only | |
| Euro 5 | ||
| Euro 6 |
You must register your vehicle if it has a foreign number plate. However, this does not include vehicles from The Netherlands as the Dutch government has shared the necessary data. This registration is available for free online, but must be made at the latest before midnight, the day after entering the zone. Also, this registration remains valid for 3 years, after which it must be renewed.
The rules in Brussels will become more strict for diesel cars in 2025 (Euro norm 6). Additionally, for petrol cars, EURO norm 3 will be required by then. In 2030, all diesel cars will be prohibited, and in 2035 all petrol, LPG and CNG will be prohibited.
More information: https://lez.brussels/.
Notes for foreign drivers
In some countries the EURO norm of the car isn’t specified in the official papers. To find this information, you need to either ask your car dealer or look it up elsewhere. For the Netherlands, a tool called Kentekencheck exists where you only need to enter your license plate to retrieve this information.