From January 1, 2027, smoking and vaping will be banned on and near restaurant and café terraces as well as in all public smoking rooms in Belgium. Photo credit: The Castlebar, Pexels.
Belgium is forging ahead on its way to becoming one of Europe’s strictest countries on tobacco and nicotine regulation, joining Spain and France in introducing far-reaching restrictions. From January 1, 2027, smoking and vaping will be banned on and near restaurant and café terraces as well as in all public smoking rooms. The measure, confirmed by the Council of Ministers in September 2025 after lengthy consultations with the hospitality sector, had initially been scheduled for 2026 but was postponed for a year to give businesses time to adapt. It means that conventional cigarettes and less hazardous alternatives such as e-cigarettes will be treated in the same way in outdoor hospitality settings. The ban is not limited to terraces themselves but also covers the immediate surrounding area, with reports suggesting a distance of up to 10 meters. Restaurants and bars will be responsible for enforcing the rules by posting clear signage, removing ashtrays and confronting customers who attempt to smoke or vape. Penalties for violations can range from €208 (US$243) to €8,000, with fines applying both to individuals and to establishments that fail to comply.
The abolition of smoking rooms will have a wide impact, extending to airports, cigar clubs, and shisha bars. For cigar lounges, the new law means the end of dedicated smoking venues, while shisha bars will be forced to either shut down entirely or transform themselves into standard hospitality businesses without indoor smoking. Health minister Frank Vandenbroucke has repeatedly framed the measures as a matter of public protection. “Protecting people’s health and creating a healthy environment for everyone is what matters to us,” he said, adding that half-hearted solutions such as partial smoking areas are ineffective because “seeing smoking encourages smoking.” Hospitality groups have expressed concern about the burden of enforcement, warning of possible conflict between staff and customers, but public health campaigners have welcomed the consistency of the approach, stressing that smoke and vapor do not respect boundaries. Although secondhand vape is not entirely harmless, research indicates that secondhand exposure to e-cigarette aerosol contains lower levels of many toxicants and carcinogens than secondhand cigarette smoke.
The restrictions form part of a comprehensive crackdown on tobacco and nicotine products that has been gathering pace for several years. Cigarette vending machines were removed in 2024, tobacco sales at bars, cafés and festivals ended in early 2025, and smoking was already prohibited in playgrounds, zoos, amusement parks and children’s farms. By 2028, supermarkets will phase out tobacco sales completely. Belgium was also the first country in Europe to ban disposable vapes, with the measure coming into force in January 2025. While the government justified the step on grounds of public health and environmental protection, the move has widely been seen as having backfired. An investigation by broadcaster VRT’s Pano program found that a thriving black market quickly filled the gap, with unregulated disposables containing substances such as synthetic cannabinoids and even circulating in schools. Harm reduction experts argue that equating vaping with smoking undermines the incentive for smokers to switch to less harmful alternatives, while pushing demand into illicit channels.
Further measures are still in the pipeline. From June 1 next year, Belgium will introduce plain packaging for all conventional tobacco products and accessories. Until now, neutral packs were required for cigarettes, rolling tobacco, and shisha tobacco, but the new decree extends the obligation to cigars, cigarillos, rolling papers, filters, tubes, and herbal smoking products. All will have to be sold in the standard dark green-brown packaging with uniform fonts and health warnings. The expansion is designed to close loopholes exploited by manufacturers, who used cigarillos or rolling papers to continue brand marketing. For small retailers, the transition period runs until mid-2027, after which compliance will be mandatory.
According to Belgium’s health survey institute Sciensano, 17.6% of Belgians currently smoke, with 12.8% smoking daily, while vaping has been on the rise, with more than 1 in 5 people reporting they have tried an e-cigarette. Between 2020 and 2024 the price of a 20-pack of cigarettes rose by nearly 60%, while loose tobacco increased by more than 90%. The government’s official target is to cut daily smoking to 10% of the population by 2028 and to 5% by 2040. With the terrace ban, the closure of smoking lounges, the plain packaging extension, and the earlier ban on disposable vapes, Belgium is positioning itself at the forefront of Europe’s anti-tobacco drive, with measures that could reshape not only smoking habits but also the country’s hospitality landscape.