Artificial Intelligence · Belgium
Artificial Intelligence - Belgium
As an EU member state, Belgium is governed by the directly-applicable EU AI Act, the world's first comprehensive horizontal AI law, which is being phased in (prohibited practices since Feb 2025, GPAI rules since Aug 2025, high-risk obligations by Aug 2026). At national level, Belgium's January 2025 federal government agreement designated the telecoms/digital regulator BIPT as the principal AI Act market surveillance authority with the FPS Economy coordinating, though Belgium missed the 2 August 2025 deadline to fully formalise its governance structure in law. Belgium also maintains a non-binding National Convergence Plan for AI (2022) and the AI4Belgium coalition as its strategy layer.
The EU AI Act (Reg. (EU) 2024/1689) applies directly in Belgium as a risk-based horizontal law. Prohibited 'unacceptable risk' practices (e.g. social scoring, manipulative systems, untargeted facial-recognition scraping) have been banned since 2 February 2025, with general-purpose AI obligations applying from 2 August 2025 and most high-risk-system rules from 2 August 2026.
Belgium's federal government agreement (declaration of 31 January 2025) named the Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications (BIPT/IBPT) as the principal AI Act market surveillance authority, with the FPS Economy coordinating overall implementation.
Belgium did not meet the AI Act's 2 August 2025 deadline to formally designate and notify its complete national competent authority structure in law; the institutional framework around BIPT and the FPS Economy is still being finalised.
Under Article 77 of the AI Act, Belgium has identified a list of public bodies (reported as around 21 authorities) empowered to oversee high-risk AI systems affecting fundamental rights, reflecting Belgium's federal/sectoral structure rather than a single regulator.
The Belgian Data Protection Authority (Autorité de protection des données / Gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit) enforces GDPR over AI systems processing personal data and has issued guidance on AI and the GDPR, creating a dual-compliance regime alongside the AI Act.
Belgium's non-binding National Convergence Plan for the Development of AI (approved by the Council of Ministers on 28 October 2022) sets ~70 actions across 9 objectives, building on the 2019 AI4Belgium coalition; BOSA (FPS Policy & Support) coordinates this strategy and an AI Observatory, complementing regional plans in Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels.
Machine-assisted translation · verified 5/23/2026 · orientation, not legal advice. English version →