Data-center law in Belgium

National jurisdiction · as of 2026-10-12

Drafted with AI

Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page. How this site is made

Belgium has no federal siting or permitting statute for data centres as such; permitting instead runs region by region under each region's general development-consent law, and grid connection runs through a single federal framework.

The Act of 29 April 1999 on the organisation of the electricity market has the King set a technical regulation for management of the federal transmission grid, covering the technical security criteria and connection conditions a directly connected client's equipment must meet, under the oversight of the Commission de régulation de l'électricité et du gaz (CREG).

In the Flemish Region, no project subject to a permit requirement, including the operation of a classified installation or activity on the Flemish Government's classification list, may proceed without a prior omgevingsvergunning, the single Flemish permit merging the former urban-development permit and the environmental permit, under the Decree of 25 April 2014.

On energy-performance reporting, the Brussels-Capital Region's Brussels Code of Air, Climate and Energy Management (CoBrACE) requires an owner or operator of a data centre sited in the Region with an installed information-technology power demand of at least 500 kW to publish and report annually to Bruxelles Environnement, implementing Article 12 of the EU Energy Efficiency Directive (2023/1791); the Flemish Region enacted its own transposition of the same Article 12 duty by the Decree of 19 April 2024 amending the Energy Decree of 8 May 2009, which since 7 May 2026 stands in Article 7.8/1.1 of that Decree and requires the identical 500 kW reporting each year by 15 May, made to the European data-centre database, with the Flemish Energy and Climate Agency (VEKA) able to take the data from it.

This entry covers no Walloon transposition of the same duty, no provision of the Walloon environmental permit (permis d'environnement) or planning code (Code du développement territorial), and no application of the federal investment-deduction incentive for energy-saving equipment (Code des impôts sur les revenus 1992, art. 69) to data-centre equipment.

Instruments on record

4 instruments on record, grouped by the family of approval each one governs.

Land use

Who decides whether a data center may occupy a site, and through what approval?

Environmental and planning permit (omgevingsvergunning) for classified installations

In force

Decreet van 25 april 2014 betreffende de omgevingsvergunning, art. 5 en art. 6

Applies to both

No one may carry out, operate, subdivide or make a permit-requiring change to a project subject to a permit requirement under this decree without a prior omgevingsvergunning, the single Flemish permit that merges the former urban-development permit and the environmental permit. The operation of a third-class classified installation or activity is instead subject to a lighter notification duty.

The Flemish Government's classification list (indelingslijst) fixes which installations and activities are first, second or third class.

Source: Full text of law

Environmental review

What impact review must precede approval, and who leads it?

CoBrACE, obligation annuelle de rapportage des centres de données

In force

Code bruxellois de l'air du climat et de la maîtrise de l'énergie (CoBrACE), obligation de rapportage annuel des centres de données, mettant en oeuvre l'article 12 de la directive (UE) 2023/1791 et le règlement délégué (UE) 2024/1364

Applies to both

The owner and the operator of a data centre situated in the Brussels-Capital Region with an installed information-technology power demand of at least 500 kW must publish and communicate to Bruxelles Environnement, every year by 31 March at the latest, the data useful for reporting required under European or international regulation, including final energy consumption and sustainability performance indicators.

Separately, under Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1364, the operator transmits to the European data centre database, through the Policy Reporting Platform, the information and key performance indicators the Regulation lists, covering the calendar year immediately preceding the year of the report; a data centre that has been operating for less than a year reports only for its actual period of activity.

Source: Full text of law

Energy and grid

What authorizations govern grid connection and onsite generation?

Data-centre energy-performance reporting duty (Flemish Region)

In force

Decreet van 19 april 2024 tot wijziging van het Energiedecreet van 8 mei 2009 art. 5 (invoeging art. 7.8.1); nu art. 7.8/1.1 van het Energiedecreet (Decreet van 3 april 2026, art. 19 tot 21)

Effective 2024-05-18 · Applies to both

Owners and operators of a data centre in the Flemish Region with an installed information-technology electrical power of at least 500 kW must supply, every year by 15 May at the latest, information on the data centre's energy performance in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2024/1364. The information includes the data centre's name, its owner's and operators' names and contact details, its start-of-operations date and its municipality.

It also includes technical data such as floor area and installed power. It also includes key performance indicators for the last full calendar year, including energy consumption, waste-heat use, water supply and renewable-energy use. The data centres report the information in the European data-centre database, and the Flemish Energy and Climate Agency (VEKA) may take the reported data from that database into the Flemish energy database.

The duty does not apply to a data centre used for defence, police or civil protection. An owner or operator of a data centre of 1 MW or more must take account of the best practices in the latest version of the EU Code of Conduct on Data Centre Energy Efficiency. VEKA may fine an owner or operator that fails to report, from 500 euros up to 10,000 euros. Since 7 May 2026 the duty has stood in Article 7.8/1.1 of the Energy Decree.

This is the Flemish Region's own transposition of Article 12 of the EU Energy Efficiency Directive (2023/1791), alongside the Brussels-Capital Region's CoBrACE duty.

Source: Full text of law

Electricity Market Organisation Act, grid connection and technical regulation

In force

Loi du 29 avril 1999 relative à l'organisation du marché de l'électricité, art. 11, art. 23 et art. 30

Applies to both

The King sets a technical regulation for management of the federal transmission grid, adopted after consultation with the grid operator and on the advice of the electricity and gas regulator. The technical regulation covers at minimum the technical security criteria and the equipment requirements for clients connected directly to the grid, a category a data centre's connection application falls into.

The Commission de régulation de l'électricité et du gaz (CREG), created as an autonomous body with legal personality, oversees compliance; obstructing its verifications and investigations, or knowingly supplying it with inaccurate or incomplete information, is a criminal offence.

Source: Full text of law

Every entry cites the instrument it describes. None of it is legal advice: verify a citation before relying on it. Full sourcing: read the methodology. The rest of the record: all jurisdictions.