At the top level, Belgium is organised into the Federal State, the Communities and the Regions. In the context of ABP, only the Federal State and the Regions are relevant. When Federal authorities are competent, they are competent for the whole territory of Belgium. When Regional authorities are the competent authorities, the Regional authority is only competent for this use/removal of ABPs within the territory of its Region, i.e. the Flemish Region, the Brussels-Capital Region or the Walloon Region.
In the figure below the competent authority in Belgium is shown, depending on the use or removal route which is chosen. The principle is that the ABP (or derived products) are under the competence of the indicated authority “from the moment they are destined for” the indicated destination.