The month of July brings its share of novelties, with sometimes consequences for your portfolio. Here is the detail of everything that comes into effect on Wednesday, July 1.
Bicycles are allowed free of charge on trains until the end of the year
From July 1 to December 31, getting your bike on the train will be free of charge.
It will however be necessary to have a ticket “bicycle supplement“but which will be free.
It is a decision of “superkern“Group travel is also permitted again on July 1.
Bike allowance becomes compulsory for hundreds of thousands of employees
From 1 July, the bicycle allowance will become compulsory for workers subject to the auxiliary joint commission for employees (CP 200). The measure, which concerns some 55,000 companies and more than 440,000 employees, was the subject of a sectoral agreement endorsed last year.
Employees who regularly use their bikes for their home-to-work trips will receive a bike allowance of 0.10 euros per kilometer driven, with a ceiling set at 4 euros per working day.
The bicycle allowance cannot be combined with other allowances granted for different means of transport on the home-work journey, with the exception of intervention for public transport. The terms of the award must be determined at the company level.
Return of fines for non-compliance with the low emission zone in Brussels
The fines for non-compliance with the criteria for access to the Low Emission Zone (LEZ-Low Emission Zone) of the Brussels Region, temporarily suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will be imposed again from 1 July .
Owners of diesel vehicles of standard EURO 0, 1, 2 or 3 and petrol and LPG vehicles of standard EURO 0 and 1 are therefore again liable to a fine of 350 euros if they circulate there from this date. As before the suspension, a new fine can only be sent three months after the previous one.
The new exemption, recently introduced with retroactive effect from April 1, will also come into effect effectively, in favor of persons holding a parking card for disabled persons who benefit from the increased intervention in health care.
The procedures for obtaining this exemption as well as all the information concerning the Low Emission Zone can be viewed on the site www.lez.brussels. Set up in 2018 in Brussels, the LEZ aims to gradually ban the most polluting vehicles circulating on the territory of the Region, in order to protect the health of the inhabitants.
Auto insurance: the green card becomes white or electronic
As of July 1, auto insurers no longer have the obligation to issue a paper version of the “green card”, the international automobile insurance card. They can use an electronic medium.
In addition, the document will only be printed on a white background. The layout can be horizontal or vertical, as long as the A4 format is not exceeded. The document must be written in one of the three national languages.
In the case of a digital certificate, the insurance card can be saved in the smartphone or printed out later.
The white and green background copies will coexist during a transitional period until December 31, 2021.
Lower social tariffs for electricity and gas
Social tariffs will decrease on average by 12% for electricity and 39% for natural gas from July 1. They will now be valid for a quarter and no longer for a semester.
Price increases will also now be limited to a double ceiling: quarterly and annual.
For electricity, the social tariff may not be more than 10% higher than that of the previous quarter and 20% higher than the average of the previous four quarters.
For natural gas, the ceiling will be 15% per quarter and 25% on an annual basis. The overruns will eventually be passed on to the next quarter. The social tariff for electricity and / or natural gas is a reduced tariff reserved for certain categories of people or households (disabled people, benefiting from an income replacement allowance, etc.). It is identical for all energy suppliers.
New tariffs for access to the networks of cable operators Telenet, Brutélé and Voo
New wholesale tariffs for access to the cable networks of Telenet, Brutélé and Voo will come into effect on July 1 and have been determined for each year until 2023. These are generally revised downwards, decided the Conference electronic communications regulators (CRC). This mechanism makes it possible to open up networks to competing operators and to charge fair prices for the wholesale rates they offer to them in order to bring competition to the benefit of users.
According to the CRC, compared to current prices, those for internet access at 100 Mbps or 200 Mbps (both alone and with a TV offer) will decrease in the majority of cases. Prices will also go down for a range of other speeds, which, she says, opens up alternative operators the opportunity to expand their product portfolio to the high end and professional customers.
Prices nonetheless rise between 2020 and 2023 given the expected growth in usage, which requires continuing to invest in order to increase the capacity of the networks, she explains.
Indexation of the kilometer tax
This July 1st, the tariffs for kilometer charging for heavy goods vehicles will be indexed in Brussels and Flanders. This applies to heavy goods vehicles with a maximum authorized mass (MMA) of more than 3.5 tonnes and to tractor-trailer vehicles of category N1 with body code BC.
All OBUs (On Board Units) will be automatically adapted to the new rates, specifies Viapass, the inter-regional association which controls and coordinates the kilometer charge.
Organ donation declaration possible online from July
From July 1, anyone wishing to become an organ donor after their death can register their wishes on the Masanté online health portal. It will therefore no longer be necessary to go to the municipality, even if this is still possible. The declaration may also be made via the attending physician. The system will also determine what happens to the rest of human body material, such as bones and blood vessels. Until now, there has been no differentiation.
As of July, citizens will be able to register their preference for four distinct options: a donation for transplantation into the body of another person or a donation of human body material. And, in the latter case: to be used for a patient who needs it, or for the production of innovative medicines or treatments, or for scientific research.
For online registration, you will need to connect to www.masanté.be by means of the electronic identity card or via itsme®. In Belgium, each citizen is a potential donor after his death unless he has explicitly opposed it during his lifetime. However, in practice, doctors do not remove organs without explicit authorization.
Single-use plastic cups banned in Namur
Namur event organizers will no longer be able to offer single-use plastic cups from 1 July. The measure was adopted by the municipal council in February before being introduced into the general police regulations. To help the organizers in their approach, the administrative equipment loan service has a stock of some 8000 cups and 2000 reusable mugs.
This Namur decision partly anticipates the decree of the Walloon government which will come into force on January 1, 2021. It is then all single-use plastic containers and utensils that will be prohibited (cups, plates, cutlery, chopsticks, mixing sticks, stems of balloons and balloons).
The ban will apply in establishments and sites open to the public, whether in municipal buildings, schools, performance halls or sports centers.
End of magnetic cards at De Lijn
Magnetic cards can no longer be used from 1 July on board De Lijn vehicles. Cash is also no longer accepted. For the sake of modernization and ecology, the cardboard cards with magnetic tape will be deleted, as well as the postmarks. However, they will remain in service on the Côte tram until September 30.
Since March, cash is also no longer accepted as a means of payment on buses and trams. Magnetic cards can be exchanged against reimbursement until September 30 at the counters or online.
Inmates allowed to wear their own clothes
From 1 July, detainees will be allowed to wear their own clothes and shoes inside Belgian prisons. Due to the health crisis of the new coronavirus, a number of prisons have encountered logistical problems, however, and will therefore not be ready on time, the prison administration said.
The legislation authorizing the wearing of personal clothing in prison dates back to 2005. Fifteen years later, it is only about to be applied. Section 43 of the Act emphasizes that the detainee’s personal clothing and shoes must meet the “standards dictated by forced cohabitation with others in terms of hygiene, decorum, order or safety“.
The prisoner may also be obliged to wear suitable shoes or clothing, then supplied by the prison establishment, to carry out his work or other activities.
Each prison will specify in its internal regulations its own rules regarding the wearing and maintenance of clothing and shoes. The inmate may also choose to continue in the prison uniform.
According to the prison administration, the majority of penitentiary establishments are ready to implement the measure, either partially for certain sections, or for the entire structure. However, a limited number of penal establishments will not be able to put it into practice on 1 July, as they have encountered logistical and technical problems due to the crisis caused by the new coronavirus.
The wearing of civilian clothes for detainees in these penal establishments will however be possible in the coming months, we are assured. Note that some prisons already voluntarily granted this right to their detainees.
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