{"id":4886,"date":"2026-07-30T18:11:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T16:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/item-researchers-in-the-media-on-the-planned-road-toll-vignette-in-the-belgian-regions\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T18:17:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T16:17:04","slug":"item-researchers-in-the-media-on-the-planned-road-toll-vignette-in-the-belgian-regions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/item-researchers-in-the-media-on-the-planned-road-toll-vignette-in-the-belgian-regions\/","title":{"rendered":"ITEM researchers in the media on the planned road toll vignette in the Belgian regions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAre these Dutch researchers undermining Belgium\u2019s plans for a road vignette?\u201d \u201cResearchers warn about Belgian road vignette: \u2018Life in the border region is so deeply interconnected\u2019\u201d<br\/>Under these headlines, Dutch and Belgian media reported on the initial findings of ITEM researchers Pim Mertens and Martin Unfried concerning the possible introduction of a road vignette in the Belgian regions from 1 May 2027.<br\/><br\/>A key legal question is whether the proposed compensation for Flemish drivers is compatible with the European principle of non-discrimination. In 2019, the Court of Justice of the European Union struck down the German road vignette because German drivers were, in practice, directly compensated through the tax system. Although the Flemish reform of the annual road tax is structured differently, the compensation mechanism still warrants further legal analysis.  <br\/><br\/>The road vignette could also have significant consequences for the cross-border region. Daily life on both sides of the border is closely interconnected: people cross the border for work, study, shopping and fuel. As the vignette would apply to both motorways and N-roads, little diversion traffic is expected. At the same time, this would make it virtually impossible to enter Belgium without a vignette. For residents of the border region, this could result in a double financial burden and make the border more tangible once again.    <br\/><br\/>ITEM therefore calls for better cross-border coordination and greater harmonisation across the EU, and particularly within the Benelux.<br\/><br\/>At the end of this summer, ITEM will publish a comprehensive Cross-Border Impact Assessment examining these implications for cross-border regions in greater detail. <a href=\"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/a-road-vignette-in-belgium\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/een-wegenvignet-in-belgie\/\">The initial reflections can already be found in the ITEM blog published in February 2026.<\/a><br\/><br\/>Read the media articles:<br\/>\ud83d\udcf0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bndestem.nl\/breda\/onderzoekers-waarschuwen-voor-belgisch-vignet-het-leven-in-de-grensstreek-is-zo-verweven~a706f3c3\/\">https:\/\/www.bndestem.nl\/breda\/onderzoekers-waarschuwen-voor-belgisch-vignet-het-leven-in-de-grensstreek-is-zo-verweven~a706f3c3\/<\/a><br\/>\ud83d\udcf0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hln.be\/binnenland\/leggen-deze-nederlandse-onderzoekers-een-bom-onder-de-plannen-voor-een-belgisch-wegenvignet~a706f3c3\/\">https:\/\/www.hln.be\/binnenland\/leggen-deze-nederlandse-onderzoekers-een-bom-onder-de-plannen-voor-een-belgisch-wegenvignet~a706f3c3\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cAre these Dutch researchers undermining Belgium\u2019s plans for a road vignette?\u201d \u201cResearchers warn about Belgian road vignette: \u2018Life in the border region is so deeply interconnected\u2019\u201dUnder these headlines, Dutch and Belgian media reported on the initial findings of ITEM researchers Pim Mertens and Martin Unfried concerning the possible introduction of a road vignette in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":4884,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"thema":[67],"class_list":["post-4886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","thema-mobility-and-infrastructure"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4886"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4887,"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4886\/revisions\/4887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4886"},{"taxonomy":"thema","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thema?post=4886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}