When will Brussels hold its second Car-Free Sunday?

The Brussels

Place

Brussels

City-region where the second annual Car-Free Sunday is planned.

Why it matters

City-region where the second annual Car-Free Sunday is planned.

About

The City of Brussels is the largest municipality and historical centre of the Brussels-Capital Region, as well as the capital of the French Community of Belgium, the Flemish Region, and Belgium. The City of Brussels is also the administrative centre of the European Union, as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions in its European Quarter.

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The government agreement had linked the additional traffic-free day to the Iris Festival, the annual celebration of the Brussels-Capital Region. That initially pointed to Sunday 9 May 2027. Van den Brandt said possible alternatives included 2 May and 6 June, according to reports by BRUZZ and the French-language Brussels broadcaster BX1. Her answer came in response to questions from Brussels MPs Joëlle Maison of DéFI and Stijn Bex of Groen.

The policy itself remains intact: Brussels is still expected to add a second Car-Free Sunday from 2027 to the established September event. The uncertainty concerns the date and operating arrangements, rather than whether the measure appears in the regional coalition programme. Brussels Minister-President Boris Dilliès

That distinction matters politically. Mobility is a regional competence in Belgium’s federal system, but closing roads across the entire Brussels-Capital Region requires coordination well beyond one ministerial office. The Region’s 19 municipalities, police zones, emergency services, Brussels Mobility

Brussels already closes most of its regional road network to ordinary motor traffic for one Sunday each September during European Mobility Week. For the 2026 edition, the City of Brussels says restrictions apply from 09:30 until 19:00, with exemptions including emergency and public services, public transport, some taxis and vehicles holding a permit. Public transport is free, while the motorways and Brussels ring remain open even though access into the Region is restricted.

The second date would turn an occasional and widely recognised September event into a twice-yearly policy. It also revives an older institutional discussion. In a 2023 parliamentary exchange, Van den Brandt said that she personally favoured more frequent car-free days but acknowledged that this was not the government’s position. She told MPs then that the Conference of Mayors had been reluctant because the municipalities and police zones share the organisational burden, although an additional day around the Iris Festival remained a possible compromise.

The budget gives that coordination a sharper edge. Van den Brandt told Parliament that the new edition should cost roughly as much as the 2025 event. The figures reported by BRUZZ and BX1 were €150,000 for communication and public awareness, €310,000 for closing the Region and its tunnels, and €350,000 to compensate for free public transport and additional services. Together those listed regional expenses amount to €810,000, before any separately negotiated municipal support for local activities.

Touring, the motorists’ and mobility association, argues that this is the wrong priority in a difficult budgetary period. In its response reported by BRUZZ, the organisation said Brussels needed dependable public transport, better accessibility, effective park-and-ride facilities and safe infrastructure throughout the year, rather than another mainly symbolic Sunday. Touring is therefore challenging the measure itself, not merely the unfortunate choice of date.

Mobiel 21, which helps coordinate car-free Sundays in Belgium, takes the opposing view. Its director-general, Els Van den Broeck, told BRUZZ that measurements cited by the organisation showed nitrogen-dioxide concentrations during Brussels’ Car-Free Sunday falling 77% to 81% below those of an ordinary Sunday. She presented the day as a practical demonstration of the health gains that cleaner urban mobility could deliver, rather than an isolated street festival. The reported figures describe a temporary event and do not by themselves establish the long-term effect of adding one more day each year.

Within the government, the argument is narrower but still revealing. Groen politicians have treated the additional Sunday as a way to let residents experience streets with very little motor traffic. Dilliès, an MR liberal, has supported holding a second event while insisting that it should not simply reproduce the September format or provoke avoidable conflict. The calendar mishap has consequently become an early test of whether the regional coalition formed during the current 2024-2029 legislative cycle can translate a headline compromise into an administratively workable policy.

The Iris Festival connection carried a clear logic: combining the Region’s civic celebration with a different use of public space. Mother’s Day, however, is also a busy occasion for family visits and hospitality businesses, while the end of the French-speaking school break adds return journeys to the same weekend. Moving the event may reduce those conflicts, but 2 May and 6 June would each require fresh checks involving school calendars, public events, policing, commerce and transport capacity.

The next decision belongs to the Brussels-Capital Government in consultation with the municipalities and other operational partners. Residents and businesses do not yet need to change plans for 2027. The established September Car-Free Sunday is separate and remains scheduled annually. What is still unknown is which spring date the government will select, whether the Iris Festival link will survive in some form, how municipal activities will be financed and whether the second edition will differ substantially from the September model.