European Disability Card homepage

Please note that this information applies to Belgian citizens only.

From 1 January 2024, persons with disabilities will automatically be issued with a European Disability Card (EDC) as soon as they receive recognition of their disability status. This was agreed by the competent ministers and state secretaries at the meeting of the Interministerial Conference (IMC) on Disability. It was also decided that the card will be automatically renewed after the expiry date of 5 years for citizens who already hold the card.

Since 2017, Belgium has been one of the eight pioneers of the European card pilot project. The EDC Card ensures that people with disabilities receive special attention in certain areas such as sport, leisure and culture. The partners participating in the project commit to offer a special welcome or service to the card holders, such as adapted accessibility, reduced rates, special assistance, etc.

Currently, only about 200,000 Belgian citizens have taken the necessary steps to obtain this EDC card, while close to one million people with disabilities have been recognised by the various authorities.

Therefore, at the Interministerial Conference (IMC) on Disability, the competent ministers decided to automatically link the card to the recognition of disability recognition. In this way, Belgium is building on the experience of this European pilot project to continue to lead the way in the field of disability in the run-up to its European Presidency in 2024.

In addition to automatic issuance for new applications, it was also decided to automatically renew the card for people already receiving existing benefits, as the card now expires after five years.

The IMC has taken these decisions on the basis of the recommendations from, among others, the Directorate General for Persons with Disabilities (DG HAN) of the FPS Social Security.

The Federal Public Service (FPS) Social Security strives to make its websites accessible, in accordance with the law of 19 July 2018 on the accessibility of the websites and mobile applications of public bodies.

This accessibility declaration applies to:

• eudisabilitycard.be

Compliance status

This website partially complies with accessibility requirements.

Inaccessible content

• The website contains images that are unfairly not marked as decorative (WCAG 1.1.1).
• The contrast errors mentioned in the report (WCAG 1.4.3) are due to bugs in the testing tool and not genuine inaccessibility errors.
• There is no link at the top of the page to go directly to the main content area (WCAG 2.4.1.) (resolved)
• A title attribute is missing in the head element (WCAG 2.4.2.) (resolved)
• Language attribute missing in html element (WCAG 3.1.1.) (resolved)

Proposed alternatives

There are no alternatives.

Action plan

Most errors have since been resolved. The fact that some non-decorative images did not receive an alt tag is due to a technical problem that will be submitted to the developer in the autumn of 2025.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This accessibility statement was drawn up on 2023-08-28.

• Audit conducted using the FPS BOSA's Accessibility Auditing Tool (partial audit). Read the accessibility report (NL, FR, DE)
• Critical analysis based on the W3C criteria.

The accessibility statement was last revised on 2025-03-26.

Feedback and contact details

FPS Social Security
Communication Service
Finance Tower
Kruidtuinlaan 50 bus 145
1000 Brussels

• Contact us by e-mail
• Submit a complaint to us: Dutch | French | German

Enforcement procedure

Do you not get an answer or are you not satisfied with the answer you get? Then contact the Federal Ombuds Service:

• contact@federaalombudsman.be
• Website Federal Ombudsman

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Cookies also usually have an expiry date. Some cookies, for example, are automatically deleted when you close your browser (so-called session cookies), while others remain on your computer for a longer period of time, sometimes even until you delete them manually (so-called permanent cookies).

Our 'Privacy Statement' page tells you who to contact about our cookies or how to file a complaint.

Which cookies do we use and why?

The FPS Social Security, which is the administrator of this website, uses three types of cookies on eudisabilitycard.be:

• essential cookies;
• functional cookies;
• analysis cookies.

The FPS Social Security uses essential and functional cookies to manage the content of its website. These cookies are necessary for the proper functioning of this website. You cannot refuse these cookies if you want to visit our websites.

The FPS Social Security also uses "Matomo" for analytical purposes. This analysis tool measures website visits. In order to collect additional useful information, this analysis tool places cookies which we use to measure the website visits (traffic). This enables us to know, among other things, how many times a particular page is read. We only use this information to improve the content of our website or as a starting point for a new campaign on a particular subject of interest.

For this analysis tool, we use a Matomo-Cloud, an external partner that has both its organisation and the underlying data centres in Europe and is fully committed to GDPR compliance and respect for privacy. For the use of cookies for analytical purposes, your prior consent is requested.

These cookies will therefore only be installed on your device after you have given your consent. If you do not give your consent, only limited visitor statistics are collected without cookies being installed.

Essential cookies

These cookies are needed for purely technical reasons to be able to visit the website. Because of the technical necessity, only an information obligation applies and these cookies are placed as soon as you visit the website.

Functional cookies

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The Federal Public Service (FPS) Social Security respects your privacy.

• Read the privacy statement of the FPS Social Security (Dutch)
• Read the privacy statement of the FPS Social Security (French)
• Also read our cookie policy for eudisabilitycard.be