Belgium for Spanish Drivers — Priority-Right & the Brussels Ring

For Spanish drivers, Belgium ticks the easy boxes — EU licence, right-hand traffic, the same 0.05 alcohol limit, the euro at the pump. No relearning the basics. What’s different is how junctions and the language work, and that’s where a relaxed visitor gets caught.

Priority to the right is the rule that bites

Belgium enforces priorité à droite more rigidly than Spanish roads prepare you for. At a junction with no marking to the contrary, a vehicle coming from your right has priority — even when you’re clearly on the busier road. Local drivers will pull straight out, expecting you to yield. The tell is the yellow priority diamond: where you see it, you keep priority; where it’s missing, give way to your right. Nowhere tests this like the Brussels ring (R0), with quick, assertive lane changes and short merging lanes.

Signs change language across the country

Belgium has no single road language. Wallonia signs in French, Flanders in Dutch, the east in German, Brussels bilingual. A target reads Mons going south and Bergen going north — same town. Programme both spellings so an exit doesn’t surprise you.

Speeds and enforcement

Limits are 120 on motorways (matching Spain), 70–90 rural, 50 in town, 30 across central Brussels, with heavy average-speed camera coverage; 10 km/h over is around EUR 53 — check it on the Speeding Fine Calculator. No IDP is required (confirm via the Driving Permit Checker), the car must carry a triangle, vest, first-aid kit and extinguisher, petrol is about EUR 1.90/litre, and emergency is 112. The full rules are on our Belgium driving guide.