The imminent smoking ban applying to all Belgian restaurant and cafe terraces has split opinion among waiting staff and bar managers, particularly in Brussels’ European quarter.
The incoming prohibition — especially in and around Place du Luxembourg, a square full of terraces in front of the European Parliament and the unofficial Thursday-night hub for young Eurocrats and expats — has divided local merchants and workers.
“It’s totally incoherent,” the manager of Quartier Léopold, a bar-brasserie facing the square, told Brussels Signal on May 28.
“We were told to ban indoor smoking, then allow it on terraces — now we have to stop it there too? People will just smoke in the square. It’ll be messier, not cleaner,” he said, asking to remain anonymous.
He added that enforcement would again fall on overburdened staff. “We’re not police. There’s already a staff shortage. We’ve been fined €600 under the current rules — when the AFSCA [the Belgian Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain] does a check, we are the ones paying.”
At Ginette Bar, across the square, staff were more understanding. “The smell is annoying and passive smoking is real — for us and for the people at nearby tables,” one unnamed waitress told Brussels Signal.
“Sure, alcohol and cigarettes go together. But maybe it’s time to break that link”, she said. “We also don’t have time to check if people are smoking”, she said, echoing Quartier Léopold’s concerns that giving waiting staff even more to handle — in the middle of a severe labour shortage — will just throw another spanner in the works for the hospitality industry.
The Ginette bar manager supported a ban on closed terraces but did not see the point for it to apply to open ones. “People will move onto the sidewalk, block the bus stop, or crowd the square. It’ll just shift the problem,” he said.
“We already only give ashtrays to smokers but checking who lights up on a packed terrace? We’re already busy.”
He added that the main confusion lay among clients. “They work in the EU institutions or are tourists — they’re not all Belgian. They don’t understand the rules here. We waste time explaining and it doesn’t make sense to them”.
“So yes, a harmonised EU rule would help — just to have one clear message.”
That might be overly optimistic. As the manager of Quartier Léopold put it: “In Belgium, things are already messy with federal and regional layers. Adding Europe doesn’t necessarily simplify things.”
Since 1 January 2025, Belgium had already tightened tobacco rules. As the health ministry stated: The phasing out of disposable vapes, bans in-store displays and the barring of sales in large food retailers from 1 April, 2025, is all to “denormalise smoking and curb impulse buys”.
Enforcement focused first on awareness but fines for violations could go up to €800,000 in serious cases, the ministry said.
Restaurant businesses, though, have been under pressure.
Almost 2,000 establishments went bankrupt in 2024. In the first quarter of 2025 alone, 1,700 insolvencies were registered.
Owners blamed inflation, soaring energy costs, wage indexation and administrative burdens — and many now feared the smoking ban would push more over the edge, according to a May report from SNI, a “neutral” organisation that represents independents and SME’s in Belgium.
Industry groups said the terrace ban was out of touch with reality. Some called it unnecessary and hypocritical — especially since smoking would still be allowed on public streets.
Others saw it as a symbolic gesture with unclear enforcement and uneven support, even among non-smoking patrons.
Several argued that decisions such as these should be left up to individual venue owners, not imposed top-down — especially in a sector still reeling from the pandemic, inflation and labour shortages.
While Belgium’s anti-smoking policies have accelerated under the governing coalition’s “smoke-free generation” goal, the European Commission has been preparing to revise the long-delayed Tobacco Excise Tax Directive (TED). The goal was to close loopholes and harmonise how cigarettes, vapes and nicotine pouches were taxed across member states.
Reactions in Brussels’ international institutions remained divided. Christine Anderson, a German MEP on the committee on Public Health, and of the Sovereign Nations Group, told Brussels Signal that she was not in favour of the EC’s ambitions.
“The intended revision is classic Brussels overreach — unelected bureaucrats trying to micromanage people’s lives. Banning flavours, slapping ugly warnings on everything, even talking about banning smoking for whole generations — that’s not health policy, that’s nanny-state madness.
“Adults should be free to make their own choices without the EU treating them like children,” she said.
By contrast, Dirk Friedrich, a policy advisor for the EP’s Identity and Democracy group, also speaking to Brussels Signal, pointed to a failed resolution in the Parliament.
“The European Parliament has rejected a resolution on this, because of amendments made by the European Conservatives and Reformists and carried by the European People’s Party,” he said.
“These amendments sought to differentiate the regulation of e-cigarettes and heated tobacco from traditional tobacco, weakening the proposal’s public health focus. The left groups then freaked out.”
Fifteen finance ministers, including Belgium’s, recently sent a letter urging the EC to act with haste. They criticised the existing patchwork of national rules for, they said, distorting the single market, Bloomberg reported.
But tax directives required unanimity in the Council of Europe — a high bar, with countries including Italy, Greece and Romania resisting change. Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister warned against treating alternative tobacco products the same as cigarettes.
In the absence of common legislation, member states implemented their own rules, sometimes at the national level, sometimes regional, as is the case in Belgium.
From an economic and cultural standpoint, Philipp Hansen, European affairs director at Japan Tobacco International, said the real challenge was identity. “Different countries have distinct relationships with smoking and regulation. What’s acceptable in Denmark or Ireland feels like overreach in Greece or Italy. Harmonisation isn’t just a tax issue — it’s cultural,” he said.
Back on Place Lux, that “cultural complexity” was lived out daily. As the Ginette manager put it: “Our clients work in the EU institutions or are tourists. They don’t know Belgian rules, and they don’t really care — it doesn’t make sense to them. We can spend time explaining but it’s confusing.
“So sure, an EU-wide rule — whether it’s stricter or more relaxed — would help. At least it would be clear.
“Right now, we’re stuck trying to enforce national rules on an international crowd — and we’re already overwhelmed,” he concluded.
