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Federal government lets asbestos victims sue liable companies

Belgium's federal government has decided to remove the civil-liability shield that has long limited lawsuits against asbestos companies once victims receive compensation from the Asbestos Fund, according to the De Tijd lead. The change would shift Belgium's asbestos policy from a mainly no-fault compensation model toward a mixed system: faster statutory payments would remain available, while victims and relatives could still seek damages from companies they argue were responsible. The exact legal text, parliamentary timetable and scope still need publication before the practical effect is clear. The issue is politically sensitive because academic and medical literature on asbestos latency shows disease often appears decades after exposure, and because Belgian cases have involved both workplace and neighbourhood exposure around former production sites. Biographical sources state the reform revives a debate that contributed to Valerie Van Peel's 2022 withdrawal from frontline federal politics after her earlier asbestos-victim proposal failed to pass.

Belgium Impulse Editorial·13 June 2026·3 min read·7 sources
Key signal

The decision matters first to asbestos victims, relatives and former industrial communities in Belgium because it could reopen a route to civil damages alongside statutory compensation. It also matters to workers, unions, employers and insurers because the reform changes how historic occupational and environmental harm may be allocated between public solidarity and corporate liability. For voters, it tests whether federal social-security policy can correct long-latency industrial harm without turning compensation into years of litigation.

The Asbestos Fund (Belgian compensation scheme administered through Fedris since 2007 for recognised asbestos victims and relatives) pays statutory compensation without requiring a full civil trial. Fedris (Federal Agency for Occupational Risks, Belgium's public occupational-disease and workplace-accident body) manages occupational-risk compensation schemes. Eternit Belgium (former Belgian asbestos-cement producer later linked to Etex) is central to Belgium's asbestos history but is not named by the government decision as the only affected company. Etex (Belgian building-materials group, successor to parts of the former Eternit business) remains a prominent corporate name in the sector's legacy. Valerie Van Peel (N-VA politician, federal MP from 2014 to 2024 and N-VA chair since 2025) previously campaigned for broader asbestos-victim rights. Harmignies (village in Mons, Hainaut, near a former asbestos-cement site) is one of Belgium's best-known local asbestos-victim communities, victim-association and historical accounts describe.

Background

Belgium created the Asbestos Fund through federal legislation in the 2000s after years of pressure from victims' groups and unions. The model prioritised access to compensation but restricted additional civil claims in many cases, a trade-off that has remained contested. Belgian regulatory records show Belgium banned the marketing and use of asbestos-containing products by royal decree in 2001, after earlier partial restrictions and long after asbestos-cement had been widely used in construction. Biographical sources state that in 2022 an opposition proposal associated with Valerie Van Peel to strengthen victims' position failed in the Chamber.

Why now

The immediate trigger is the federal government's decision reported on 12 June 2026. Politically, the file has returned because earlier attempts to widen victims' rights failed and because the De Wever coalition now has to turn a long-running liability grievance into legislation.

OIS Intelligence

What to watch

Watch for the published bill, the Chamber committee assignment, any Council of State advice, and whether the text applies only to future compensation decisions or also to victims already paid by the Asbestos Fund. Company and insurer responses will indicate how contested the reform becomes.

Impact

Regional — The legal change is federal, because Fedris public information describes the Asbestos Fund as part of Belgium's federal occupational-risk architecture and civil-liability rules are national. Its lived effects are more local and uneven: former industrial areas in Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels can face different asbestos legacies depending on historic production, demolition and renovation patterns. Harmignies in Hainaut and former Eternit-linked sites in the Brussels area illustrate why a single federal rule may matter differently across communities with distinct exposure histories.

Opposing perspectives

  1. Asbestos victims and relatives

    Victims' groups would frame the change as overdue because statutory compensation should not prevent families from testing corporate responsibility in court. The Harmignies historical accounts describe local victim communities that have long sought recognition beyond administrative payments, especially where exposure extended from workplaces into households and neighbourhoods.

  2. Federal government / De Wever coalition

    The government can present the reform as a correction to an imbalance in the compensation model: the Asbestos Fund keeps a faster public route for recognised victims, while removing a legal shield that made the system appear to protect companies from accountability. That framing depends on the bill preserving access to compensation without forcing every case into litigation.

  3. Companies and insurers facing historic asbestos claims

    Affected companies and insurers are likely to argue that reopening civil liability for decades-old exposure creates difficult evidentiary problems, uncertain costs and legal instability. Their strongest case is that compensation funds were designed precisely because asbestos disease has long latency periods and individual fault can be hard to prove after corporate restructurings, site closures and missing records.

Sources & evidence