Belgium’s New Penal Code Takes Effect September 1

Belgium’s comprehensive new Penal Code enters into force on September 1, 2026, marking the first major overhaul of the country’s criminal law since 1867. The reform, which replaces a code built on Napoleonic-era principles, introduces a new legal philosophy, new criminal offenses, and a fundamentally restructured penalty system designed to make Belgian criminal justice more readable, coherent, and aligned with contemporary values.

A Historic Overhaul

The new Code, adopted by the Chamber of Representatives on February 22, 2024, and published in the Belgian Official Gazette on April 8, 2024, represents the culmination of a decade-long reform process that began in 2015 when former Justice Minister Koen Geens created the Commission for Penal Law Reform. The old Code of 1867 had become a legislative patchwork—difficult to read, sometimes incoherent, and largely outdated by the evolution of society, jurisprudence, and judicial practice.

According to the SPF Justice, the new Code consists of two books: Book I establishes the general principles of criminal law and lists principal and accessory penalties, while Book II enumerates the various criminal offenses. Each of the Code’s 691 articles is now headed by a title indicating its subject matter, a significant departure from the dense, unstructured text of the old Code.

A New Penalty Structure

The most visible structural change is the replacement of the traditional classification of crimes, delits, and contraventions—inherited from the Napoleonic Code—with eight levels of penalties, ranging from level 1 (lightest) to level 8 (heaviest, including life imprisonment). Level 1 offenses, such as defamation and slander, carry no imprisonment at all, while level 2 offenses, including discrimination and home invasion, carry a minimum sentence of six months. Criminal penalties are reserved for levels 7 and 8, with correctional penalties covering levels 1 through 6.

This new architecture makes the relative severity of different offenses immediately legible, as Legalstreet notes, allowing citizens to situate any offense on a common scale rather than comparing scattered articles.

Imprisonment as Last Resort

At the heart of the reform lies a fundamental philosophical shift: imprisonment is now conceived as the ultimate remedy (ultimum remedium), to be imposed only when other penalties cannot achieve the objectives of punishment. Article 27 of the new Code requires judges to pursue four objectives when imposing sentences: expressing society’s disapproval, promoting restoration of social equilibrium and repair of damage, favoring rehabilitation and social reintegration, and protecting society.

“What means will we give ourselves through a criminal trial so that people get better, in the positive sense—that is, that they abandon their criminal path to change trajectory?” asked Damien Vandermeersch, one of the fathers of the new Code, member of the Commission for Penal Law Reform, and Advocate General at the Court of Cassation, in an interview with RTBF. “We wanted to appeal both to the responsibility of individuals and to that of the State, and this translates into the objectives of punishment that reflect a philosophy.”

Vandermeersch emphasized the restorative justice dimension: “Inscribing the author of a criminal act in a restorative justice logic is not simple, contrary to what one might think. It is perhaps less comfortable than prison for the offender because they will be forced to question themselves.” He also stressed the importance of protecting society through effective responses to recidivism—which he noted runs at around 60 percent according to sources—arguing that “it is not more imprisonment that protects better.”

New Offenses and Updated Terminology

The new Code introduces several entirely new criminal offenses, including ecocide (Article 94), which sanctions serious, extensive, and lasting damage to the environment such as an oil spill; incitement to suicide (Articles 109-111); and subsidy fraud (Article 691). A new autonomous offense of homicide in the context of road traffic replaces the term “involuntary homicide” for fatal traffic accidents, a change that Legalstreet notes carries significant symbolic weight for victims’ families.

Terminology has also been modernized throughout the Code. “Assault” is now referred to as “acts of violence,” and “vandalism” is newly defined as destroying, damaging, or making unusable property belonging to others, or making unauthorized graffiti. The “night” is now legally defined as the period between 9 PM and 5 AM, and harassment no longer distinguishes between online and offline versions.

The Code also codifies concepts that previously existed only in jurisprudence or doctrine. As Vandermeersch explained, “The state of necessity is force majeure. It is when you commit an offense because you have no other option to safeguard something superior. For example, you run a red light to let an ambulance pass. The state of necessity was a general principle of law. It is better that such a notion now appears in the Penal Code!”

A Deliberate Postponement

The entry into force was originally scheduled for April 8, 2026, but was postponed to September 1 following widespread concerns from the magistracy about operational readiness. A survey by the independent association Magistratuur & Maatschappij of 513 magistrates found that 81.5 percent favored a postponement, with 71.2 percent believing the entry into force was not operationally feasible or only at the cost of radical transitional measures, as RTBF reported.

Key concerns included the absence or late finalization of adapted legislation on road traffic, narcotics, weapons, communal administrative sanctions (GAS), preventive detention, criminal procedure, and the absence of a code for the execution of sentences. The SPF Justice confirmed that the postponement was intended to give all field actors the organizational flexibility needed to prepare for the new Code’s implementation.

Alain De Nauw, Professor Emeritus of Criminal Law and KVAB member, called the postponement “a wise and careful decision that gave legal practice much-needed extra time,” while noting that the late publication of several harmonization laws “shows how complex and extensive this reform is: it is not easy to bring so many special laws into line with a completely new code.”

Transitional Challenges Ahead

Despite the extra preparation time, significant challenges remain. Denis Bosquet, a criminal law specialist at the Brussels Bar, told RTBF that practitioners expect difficult beginnings: “Everyone is at full capacity but we expect difficult beginnings. Thus, in a first transitional period, we will need to take all existing files, prior to the entry into force date, and transpose them after this date.”

Bosquet also noted resistance to certain aspects of the reform, “particularly regarding the levels of penalties that no longer allow preventive detention.” The new rules on recidivism—whereby any prior conviction now counts, regardless of severity—may also have significant implications for repeat offenders.

De Nauw highlighted a particularly concerning issue with the Drug Law: the current minimum prison sentence of three months for the basic offense, after conversion to the new penalty scale, comes out to a minimum of three years—without any penalty increase due to the minority of persons involved, health consequences, or participation in an organization. While judges can apply mitigating circumstances, these are facultative, raising concerns about potential legal inequality across different courts.

What This Means for Belgian Citizens

The new Code affects everyone who interacts with the justice system. Road homicide is now a distinct offense, changing how fatal traffic accidents are prosecuted. The night is now legally defined, affecting when certain offenses are considered to have aggravating circumstances. Harassment is treated uniformly whether online or offline. And the new penalty structure makes it easier to understand the relative severity of different offenses.

As the Unia equal opportunities center notes, the Code also consolidates and updates provisions on hate crimes, discrimination, and related offenses, bringing them into a single coherent framework.

Looking Ahead

The September 1 entry into force marks the beginning of a new era for Belgian criminal justice, but the reform’s full impact will only become clear in the months and years ahead. Key questions remain: How will courts adapt in practice during the first months of implementation? Will the facultative nature of mitigating circumstances lead to sentencing disparities? And what will be the practical impact on prison overcrowding, given the new philosophy of imprisonment as last resort?

Vandermeersch offered a final cautionary note: “The prison option is sometimes necessary, but it is better to release earlier in good conditions than to release later without conditions. And this is one of my concerns because more and more convicts are serving their full sentence and we are moving away from all these objectives.” As Belgium embarks on this historic legal transformation, the coming months will reveal whether the new philosophy can translate into practice.