by Ms. Nora Ljubojevic, Analyst, IB Consultancy, The Netherlands
Security Situation Overview
Belgium is a federal state located at the heart of the European continent and hosts in its capital the headquarters of the European Union and NATO, as well as of a myriad of international organizations and think-tanks. Known for its systemic government crises and chronic catharsis of legislative power, its current seven-party coalition government formed after 494 days of negotiations aspires to provide a sense of stability and reliability among its traditional allies. The country is administratively divided into three regions: the Flemish Region, the Brussels Capital Region, and the Walloon Region. Such regions have powers over a wide array of fields in relation to their territory, with the Federal State retaining the competence over foreign affairs, defense, justice, finance, and social security.
As a diplomatic hub, its city of Brussels is also rife with espionage, reinforced by the fact that it is not considered a crime under Belgian law, which dates back to the 1930s.
In the broad field of security, the biggest problem of Belgium lies on its lack of proper tanks and overall adequate equipment and resources (including shortage of personnel) to engage in intensive combat in a successful manner, as reported by defense experts and Belgian think tanks based in the country.
CBRNe security threats in the country mostly concern terrorist activities – namely, ISIS monitoring the whereabouts of a senior nuclear official – targeting public places and nuclear facilities. Belgium’s evident unpreparedness in CBRN episodes as compared to its EU peers was indicated by the 2018 European Parliament’s research report.
As for the health sector, hospitals declared in 2014 that they were well prepared for pesticide/insecticide incidents due to their reserves of atropine and naloxone, but not sufficiently prepared for attacks using toxic chemicals such as cyanide or nerve agents which require atropine and oxime. Additionally, the country falls short of offering adequate protection against a biological attack in terms of vaccine and therapeutic stockpiles. The 2021 report by the Institut Royal Superieur de Défense even acknowledges this problem, declaring that they have a limited response capacity, needing the support of a foreign nation or a dramatic reduction of its operations elsewhere in the event of a CBRN disaster. Its Defense Ministry is in need of evacuation resources to conduct ground maneuverings, the aerial platforms to transport medical aid in accordance with EU and NATO legislation, a mobile laboratory for CBRN deployment and an adequate medical intelligence capability. With the aim to reverse these shortcomings, the government launched in June 2022 the STAR Plan for Security, Technology, Ambition and Resilience, a package of government investment of 10.3 billion euros in defense capabilities, both on a much needed national level and on missions deployed abroad.
CBRNe Foundations
Belgium has ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Biological and Toxin Weapons convention, the Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, and the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty.
It is also a party to the Wassenaar Arrangement, the Zangger Committee, the Convention on Cluster Munitions, the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, and to the Hague code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation. The National Point of Contact for the implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1540 is the Non-Proliferation Department (M5), located in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Regarding the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), Belgium attended the mid-June 2022 TPNW conference in the capacity of an observer. The country has neither signed nor ratified the TPNW and consistently votes against the annual UN General Assembly resolution welcoming the adoption of the TPNW since 2018. Nevertheless, citizen support to join the TPNW was 77% in 2020 according to a public opinion poll.
Domestically, the Royal Decree of 2003 stands as the general emergency plan at a national level, laying down the division of responsibilities and the coordination among units. The country has had an emergency plan in place for nuclear and radiological accidents since 1991, and a CBRNe emergency plan set by a Royal Decree since 2018 to deal with a criminal incident using CBRN agents, whose content has not been made public on security grounds. Concerning the processing of dangerous substances such as explosives sites, chemical and petrochemical plants, called Seveso establishments, the country applies a 1982 European Seveso Directive to reduce the risk of industrial accidents. Each region undergoes an inspection from a team made up of regional and federal inspectors, and the country launches an information campaign every five years, managed by the National Crisis Center.
Overview of CBRNe and IED Stakeholders
The National Crisis Center (NCCN), Ministry of Home Affairs, is responsible for the coordination of the emergency planning and crisis management policy.
It manages the country’s multiple contingency plans: the general emergency and intervention plans on a national level and in each municipality or province and, the special emergency and intervention plans which are complementary to the general ones. For instance, in case of a nuclear accident, the NCCN activates the national nuclear and radiological emergency plan. In case of a CBRNe attack the procedure is not publicly available. In any case, in the event of an emergency, the Center refers to the necessary brigades by using a discipline number (up to 5) based on the nature of tasks. For instance, discipline 1 for relief operations, discipline 2 for medical, sanitary, and psychosocial services, and discipline 3 for police of the scene of the emergency.
The role of the police in general CBRNe incidents concerns monitoring the perimeters outside the less dangerous zone, known as orange zone. The Specialized Federal Police services (e.g., DJSOC Terro) monitor CBRNe related threats in collaboration with local police forces.
When a CBRNe incident is of a criminal or terrorist nature, the specialized response involves the Federal Police whilst simultaneously running the judicial and administrative phase, which is supported by police forces. All police personnel entering the orange or red zone has previously been CBRNe trained. The Special Intervention Units of the Federal Police (DSU) intervening in the hot zone of the incident will be wearing personal protective equipment, and a CBRNe pool team of the Directorate of Technical and Scientific Police will record urgent traces to identify suspects. If necessary, members of the DSU will also form a Casual Extraction Team to remove victims from the hot zone. At the same time, the work of national security services is supported by the coordination unit for threat analysis (CUTA), where intelligence on possible threats including CBRNe cases is gathered.
The Firefighters Brigades are in charge of the HazMat incidents in the country, having engaged in training with foreign forces like the US in the past.
From a military perspective, both Air and Ground forces have CBRN defense specialized units. Within the 10th Tactical Wing, the 2nd Tactical Wing and the 1st Wing the Force protection Squadron, there is a dedicated Flight (Peloton) to CBRN defense on the airfield.
As for the Land Component, the units dealing with CBRN defense are part of the Engineer Battallions. In the near future both Engineer Battalions will have the same composition regarding CBRN per Battalion. Belgian CBRN specialists have been deployed to Afghanistan to execute disinfection tasks and the monitoring and surveying of old factories. Military CBRN specialists can support national first responders in case of activation of federal crisis plans. They commonly train emergency procedures with 1st responders in civilian facilities or in the context of mass events.
To address explosive threats, the Belgian Armed Forces has a service for clearance and disposal of explosive devices (SEDEE in French and DOVO in Flemish) within the Engineers Department. They are scattered across the country, including an immediate response detachment and a training detachment in Camp Elsenborn, Camp Leopoldsburg, and an EOD-oriented diving school and diver detachment at Zeebrugge. They are also responsible for the clearance and destruction of chemical and toxic ammunitions, with the chemical weapons destruction facility at Poelkapelle under their supervision.
The Belgian army has a Medical Component, commanded by a Major General, that supports military operations in the event of a disaster and the pertaining staff training sessions. The Component consists of the Medical Component Competence Centre; the Queen Astrid Military Hospital; the 14th Medical Battalion that supports the Air, Naval and Special Operations Regiment; the 23rd Medical Battalion, and the 5th Medical Supplies and Distribution Element. The military hospital contains a CBRN Emergency and reanimation mobile service (SMUR).
Concerning civil-military engagement, the Vigilant Guardian Operation (VGO) pools forces with the Federal Police since 2015 in light of the terrorist attacks on Belgian soil to reinforce the role of the police when patrolling public spaces and nuclear installations.
There is a CBRN Hospital Emergencies plan that provides first responders in the health sector with instructions to protect themselves and their patients in the event of a CBRN incident. A top-down approach is applied, as the Federal Public Health Service (SPF Santé) is in control of the strategic stockpile of medical treatments allocated for such threats that may be later on distributed to the regions depending on their circumstances.
Procurement
The government committed itself after the NATO 2022 Summit in Madrid to increase their defense spending up to 2% of GDP in the 2030-2035 timeframe, coming from a previous pledge to rise it to 1,24% of GDP. The figure for 2021 was 1.1%. Defense spending is 1.7% of the total government spending as according to the latest figure available on SIPRI. Chief among its NATO commitments was also the acquisition of more F35 fighter planes and heavy firepower for the land forces. Furthermore, Belgium is expected to acquire reconnaissance CBRN vehicles and a complementary reserve system for 9.6 million euros after 2040.
90% of the security equipment used in the country, which includes fire detection technology, is imported, with the US standing as its main supplier. The largest arms exporter to Belgium for the past two years by far has been Spain, followed by Germany. Its biggest arms importer is Saudi Arabia, followed by Indonesia.
Capabilities
On a Federal level – under the Directorate General for Civil Security – there is the Belgian Civil Protection Center, a center of a civilian nature located in Brasschaat, that provides logistic support to first responders in the form of theoretical and practical courses on CBRN, and Search and Rescue (SAR) operations.
The Antwerp-based Campus Vesta provides training for first responders, namely firefighters, police officers, emergency medical responders and disaster management experts. Its over 700 instructors are active in their respective discipline fields (e.g., fire brigades), and the purpose of the trainings is manifold. They provide specific training sessions dedicated to CBRN within the center as it is a network partner of the eNOTICE research program of the European Commission.
Also on a civilian level, we learnt of the 2017 bilateral cooperation agreement between the Antwerp police force and the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (the SCK CEN, a research institution) to participate in the ERASMUS+ project “Development of CBRN training programme for police officers (CBRN-POL)”.
For its part, and also on a civil level, the NCCN organizes multidisciplinary exercises in each municipality or province involving emergency services at least once a year and at least one exercise on the nuclear emergency plan per year. Such exercises incorporate an overarching scope as they can encompass the role of other divisions. For instance, the tabletop exercises are those in which the partners participating in an emergency agree on the required coordination; the command post exercises are those in which different crisis cells simulate a crisis scenario and cooperate among themselves, whereas the field exercises stage an emergency deploying all the required personnel and resources. The PIVO police Academy in the Vlaams-Brabant province offered a course this spring on CBRN.
Civil-military and federal-regional partnerships on CBRN issues do exist. As stated previously, in case of activation of a federal crisis plan, Belgian Defense Forces can support the first responders within means and capabilities. The last large scale exercise happened in March 2022 and involved firefighters, police and a decontamination platoon from 4th Engineer Battalion. The importance of such exercises is to train communication between services, and to train the decontamination process in a civilian environment.
The NCCN set up in 2018 a CBRNe Expertise Center to helps partners to make CBRNe emergency plans operational, offer support in crisis management, and organize trainings for intervention services. Its experts come from different partner services: the Federal public health service, the Ministry of Defense, the Federal Police, the Fire Brigade, the Directorate-General Civil Security, the Federal Agency for Nuclear Control, and Sciences. Its duties also include reassessing the emergency plans.
On an army level, the Camp Adjudant Brasseur in Amay is the headquarter of the 4th Command Battalion (4e Bataillon de Génie). As stated by the Belgian Ministry of Defense, each soldier needs to acquire CBRN skills, among others, before being deployed abroad. This prerequisite is known as the Joint Individual Common Core Skills, in which soldiers receive a certificate after undergoing immersive training sessions that enhance their response action. Concerning EOD, the Camp Leopoldsburg harbors both national and international units that wish to test minefields designed by the Belgian DOVO.
Programs and Joint Operations/Exercises in the field of CBRNe
Belgium has, on multiple occasions, joined Nato Response Force with CBRN elements. In a recent context, Belgium’s CBRN specialists are training within a German company. This company is also reinforced by Dutch Reconnaissance assets.
More recently, a partnership in the CBRN domain occurred in 2020 between Belgium and the Netherlands, coordinated by the Land Component branch of the Belgian and Dutch armies within the framework of Benelux cooperation. They signed a Memorandum of Understanding authorizing CBRN Belgian forces to train in the Dutch Vught Center. In 2020, both countries signed a contract with a consortium of French companies to provide their Naval Forces with unmanned systems for detecting and clearing minefields.
In April 2022, the Belgian Defense forces have sent CBRN instructors to Romania to train the Belgian Troops. They coached them in their reaction drill regarding CBRN defense, in the context of the possible use of non-conventional weapons in Russian-Ukranian Crisis.
Concerning demining and counter IED operations, every year a Belgian minehunter vessel takes part in the Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 1 operations. As a member of NATO, its naval forces regularly participate in the alliance’s naval mine warfare courses.
On a civil-military level, there was cooperation in CBRN threats between the American 773rd Civil Support Team soldiers and the Belgian firefighters, conducting joint trainings on decontamination and sampling procedures.
The Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs bankrolls multiple mine clearance operations abroad, financing last year an Angolan NGO (APOPO) to remove landmines in the country.
Conclusion
Belgium remains a hub for military training facilities due to its strategic location, and besides the official state channels it also offers numerous training opportunities through public-private contractors. The country’s policy of giving prevalence to special operations missions abroad -especially in Africa, the Middle East and Afghanistan – is apparently coming to an end as there is momentum for reprioritizing its national security and stability in first place. Its relatively small but well-prepared army engineers unit will be key to train future and multiply skilled generations of army officers.
Acknowledgements
Big thanks to Mr. Barend Cochez, Police Liaison officer and Operational Coordinator at Belgium’s CBRNe Expertise Center, for his inputs on police CBRNe capabilities, and also to the Press Service of the Belgian Ministry of Defense.
About the Author:
Ms. Nora Ljubojevic is an Analyst at IB Consultancy. Her prior work experience includes the EU Delegation to the UN in New York, the Council of Europe, the Centre for European Policy in Belgrade and the Human Rights Foundation. She holds an MLitt. in Middle East, Caucasus and Central Asia Security Studies from the University of St. Andrews and a BA in Political Science from the Complutense University of Madrid.
