Belgium fines 250,000 foreign drivers - in 23 languages

Belgium has issued almost a quarter of a million fines to drivers of foreign-registered vehicles since the start of this year, new figures reveal.

A better exchange of vehicle registration data among EU member states has made it easier to track down foreign drivers who commit offences on Belgian roads.

Since last December, as well as the national languages of French, Dutch and German, courts can now send out traffic fines in 20 other European languages, 

During the first seven months of 2020, the federal justice ministry reports that 247,800 fines were issued to foreign vehicle owners.

Unsurprisingly, the most common offenders were in Belgium's neighbouring countries, with the Netherlands top on 87,129, followed by France (76,311), Luxembourg (31,186) and Germany (24,837).

The next most common countries to be caught committing a traffic offence in Belgium were Poland (16,880) and Romania (5,988).

"Everyone must respect the rules, whatever their nationality," said justice minister Koen Geens. "By facilitating the exchange of identity data between European countries, we know more quickly to whom to send the fine.

"Whether you are Italian, Romanian or Slovak: from now on, each offender will receive the fine in their own national language."