In the meantime, the Flemish Parliament has taken action and adopted a new act: the Act of 21 November 2025 amending the Act of 25 April 2014 on the environmental licence, regarding the prevention of conflicts of interest where an environmental licence is applied for by a municipality or province.
The Flemish Parliament has opted for a simple and clear escalation of powers. Concretely, this means that all municipal cases in which an environmental impact report or a project EIR screening is involved shall be transferred to the Provincial Council. Provincial cases where this is the case will from now on be transferred to the Government of Flanders. This transfer also applies when the Board of Mayor and Aldermen or the Provincial Council is (in fact) one of the applicants of the project.
The Flemish Parliament also brings clarity on the temporal application of this amendment. In previous reports we have pointed out the provisional approach the Environment Department had recommended after the annulling judgement, specifically the ex officio escalation of powers. Although this approach was in line with European regulations and helped prevent conflicts of interest, it remained legally vulnerable as long as it was not anchored in a Flemish Parliament Act. For that reason, the legislator has opted for a retroactive effect of the amendment from 19 September 2025, mainly to prevent legal uncertainty.
Thus, the amended Act clarifies the impact of the judgement of the Constitutional Court and which decisions are affected:
- The annulling judgement affects the legality of licences granted in application of the annulled article. These licences will continue to exist and will not disappear by operation of law, but they do have a shortcoming.
- Article 18 of the Special Act on the Constitutional Court determines that a new appeal period of six months starts from the publication of the annulling judgement in the Belgian Official Gazette, i.e. on 14 October 2025. For licences that are (entirely or partially) based on the annulled article, this additional appeal period may apply. This means that a new administrative or jurisdictional appeal may be lodged within a period of six months against decisions taken between 20 May 2024 and 14 October 2025.
