Sanctions 2026

BELGIUM Law and Practice Contributed by: Valerijus Ostrovskis, Coline Cauvin, Delphine Buyle and Yapa Thepkanjana, ACQUIS

On 9 July 2026, the draft law transposing Directive (EU) 2024/1226 was adopted by the Belgian Chamber of Representatives. The transposing law will enter into force on 1 September 2026.

Additionally, sanctions violations are criminal offences. As a result, they may be investigated and prosecuted through the ordinary criminal enforcement framework involving the police authorities, the public prosecu - tor’s office and/or investigating judges. 2.2.2 Breaching Sanctions Sanctions violations are a criminal offence under Bel - gian law. The legal basis of such penalties may be found in various laws adopted to ensure the imple - mentation of UN and EU sanctions regimes in Bel - gium, such as: • Article 4 of the Law of 11 May 1995 on the imple - mentation of resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, supplemented by the Law of 2 May 2019 on various financial provisions; and • Article 6 of the Law of 13 May 2003 on the imple - mentation of restrictive measures adopted by the Council of the European Union against States, certain persons and entities. Under the current Article 6 of the Law of 13 May 2003, infringements may give rise to imprisonment from eight days to five years and a criminal fine from EUR25 to EUR25,000. These base fines are subject to multiplication under Belgium’s statutory surcharge mechanism ( opdeciemen / décimes additionnels ). The surcharge factor was raised from x8 to x10 for offenc - es committed from 1 February 2026. The general provisions of the Belgian Criminal Code may also apply. Participation in sanctions violations may therefore be prosecuted under the ordinary rules on criminal participation, and illegal proceeds from sanctions violations may be confiscated in addition to any criminal penalties imposed. Under Article 5 of the Criminal Code, criminal liabil - ity extends to legal persons where the offence either serves the pursuit of their corporate purpose or inter - ests, or was carried out on their behalf. Because a legal person cannot serve a custodial sentence, Arti - cle 41bis of the Criminal Code converts any custodial term into a monetary fine. The resulting fine for a legal person may therefore exceed the ceiling applicable to natural persons.

2. Overview of Regulatory Field 2.1 Primary Regulators

Belgium distributes sanctions implementation respon - sibilities across multiple federal and, in certain areas, regional authorities. The primary federal authorities are FPS Finance and FPS Economy. Within FPS Finance, the Treasury deals mainly with financial sanctions, including asset-freeze deroga - tions, handling notifications and issuing payment authorisations. Customs and Excise, also within FPS Finance, carries out border controls and checks compliance with applicable import, export and transit restrictions. For trade-related restrictions, FPS Economy acts as the licensing authority for the importation, exportation and transit of goods and services, financial assistance and brokerage services, except where such compe - tences have been transferred to the Regions. 2.2 Enforcement 2.2.1 Enforcement Responsibilities Enforcement of sanctions regulations is shared between several competent authorities, each with - in their respective competences. For sanctions- licensing, the primary competent authorities are FPS Finance for financial sanctions and the Ministry of Economy for economic sanctions. Each of those administrations monitors the enforce - ment of sanctions within its scope of competences, may impose conditions for derogation licences and may actively monitor activity within its purview and detect violations that may be grounds for criminal action by the public prosecutor’s office. Additionally, the federal ministry competent for the type of sanc - tions violation may also decide to impose an admin - istrative penalty.

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