BGM Digest — Week 26 (22-28 June 2026)

The heatwave, the week's standout

Summer's first heatwave dominated Brussels news. The thermometer hit a peak of 38 °C, the European ozone information threshold was exceeded across the three Regions, and the SIAMU logged over 400 heat-related medical call-outs. Facing gusts of 80 km/h, Brussels Environment closed the regional parks and the Sonian Forest from 7pm, prompting the evacuation of the Couleur Café festival. Electricity use rose 11% and the Atomium closed in the afternoon. The episode revives the debate on adapting the city (climate refuges, underground urbanism, water management), while the Region still has no social climate plan a year after the European deadline and the warming dossier opened the previous week takes on its full meaning.

Cleanliness: the City of Brussels doubles its taxes

The City of Brussels votes on 29 June on a 2026-2032 tax regulation that doubles its penalties for littering: illegal dumping from 500 to €1,000/m³, construction waste from 1,000 to €2,000/m³, a bag put out out of hours from 100 to €200, graffiti from 500 to €1,000/m². It takes effect on 1 August, in exchange for expanded free bulky-waste collection. The City issued over 7,700 cleanliness fines in 2025, up 61% year on year. See the cleanliness domain →

Economy: cuts at Visit.brussels, but a company balance back in the green

The regional government approved a redundancy plan at Visit.brussels: 37 departures out of 159 full-time equivalents (about a quarter of staff), with the budget falling from €22m to €12.5m by 2029 and several events scaled back or cancelled (Iris Festival cut to one day, Comic Strip Festival and I Love Science Festival cancelled). Against the grain, the IBSA reports a positive signal: in 2024, for the first time since 2008, more employer companies set up in Brussels than left (a net balance of +4), after a net loss of 692 companies to the periphery between 2015 and 2024. See the economy domain →

Institutional: sixteen communes against home visits

At least 16 of the 19 communes adopted a motion against the federal bill allowing home visits to undocumented persons, which would let police enter a dwelling with an investigating judge's approval. Uccle rejected the motion; Watermael-Boitsfort and Ganshoren have yet to decide. An expression of tension between the Brussels communal level and the federal level. See the institutional domain →

Mobility: the vintage-vehicle loophole in the LEZ

A loophole in the low-emission zone is documented: vintage vehicles ("O" plate, over thirty years old) are automatically exempt, with no check on their use. Their number in the zone has more than tripled, from 3,936 in 2019 to 13,799 in 2024; vehicles driven a hundred days a year or more rise from 17 to 156. The figures come from an answer to a parliamentary question. The revision of this exemption is expected in the LEZ reform planned for 2027.

Social and security: shift towards the CPAS, commercial curfew extended

According to data presented to Parliament, 28.1% of Brussels residents cut off from unemployment by the federal reform actually turned to a CPAS in the first three waves, a partial but real shift towards communal social assistance. On security, Schaerbeek and Saint-Josse extended by three months, until the end of September, the night-time closure (1am-6am) of shops in the Brabant district. Finally, the parliamentary inquiry committee on the Foyer anderlechtois continues its hearings, questioning the regional oversight chain of social housing (see the SLRB dossier).

See all domains → | See the radar →