Here are all the changes that will take effect from July 1, 2020.
CONSUMPTION
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.
MOBILITE
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.
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.
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. However, it will be necessary to have a “bicycle supplement” ticket which will be free. It is a deicison of the “superkern”.
Group travel is also permitted again on July 1.
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.
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. They will however 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.
ENVIRONMENT
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 loan service of the administration’s equipment has a stock of some 8,000 cups and 2,000 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.
SANTE
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 must log on to www.masanté.be using 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.
PRISON
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. Article 43 of the law emphasizes that the detainee’s personal clothing and shoes must meet “standards dictated by forced cohabitation with others in terms of hygiene, decorum, order or security”. 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.
EUROPE
Germany to preside over the EU for 6 months
On July 1, the presidency of the Council of the European Union changes hands. The Croats, whose presidency has been swept away by the pandemic, pass the torch to the Germans for six months. Make way for Angela Merkel, who has already announced that she will soon leave politics, and her ministers. The coronavirus, still very present in Europe despite the deconfinement, greatly disrupted the six months during which the meetings between ministers of member states and diplomatic contacts to prepare the European summits were managed by Zagreb. We had to reorganize a good part of the calendar, move many discussions to the purely virtual, etc.
The content has also been turned upside down by the pandemic, which has knocked the European economy down. To raise it, without creating excessive distortions, the Commission proposed in May a new budgetary framework for 2021-2027 as well as a recovery instrument at 750 billion euros supposed to financially support the States in the first years.
Germany’s attitude on this issue, alongside France, had made it possible to overcome an obstacle that seemed insurmountable for Berlin until recently: the idea of contracting a common debt at Union level. Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron had publicly taken a huge step in this direction by proposing a stimulus fund imagined by the two countries, and incorporating this element, on May 18.
The stimulus package put on the table by the Commission, which incorporates this idea, as well as its long-term budget plan, have yet to be negotiated and approved by the Member States, work which will continue at the summit of 17- July 18.
Initially, immediate “crisis management” and recovery will be the “essential” priorities, confirms a source. Right after the summer break, “the future relationship with the United Kingdom” will take over.
The other priorities of this presidency, which is forced to reinvent itself before it even begins, will come next, if time permits: we cite “social” Europe, then climate, digitalization, migration, the rule of law, but also Foreign Affairs.
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