Translation of Commercial and Company Documents for Belgium

Before you start sending commercial documents to Belgium there is one question to answer: which language region is your counterparty in? This page deals with the documents a company established in Türkiye will submit to a register, a buyer or a tendering authority in Belgium. A Belgian company opening a branch in Türkiye is a separate process, one in which the same documents travel in the opposite direction and are translated into Turkish.

The language region, the file’s first variable

Dutch is used in the Flemish region of Belgium, French in the Walloon region and German in a small region in the east; Brussels is bilingual. This is not a matter of courtesy but a rule about accepting paperwork: a translation into the wrong language comes back even when its content is sound. Before opening a file, then, confirm your counterparty’s address and working language in writing. If you are operating in the bilingual region, asking which language is preferred saves the cost of a second translation later. There are also situations in which the same document has to be prepared in two languages at once, and these arise above all in tenders where federal and regional authorities are both involved.

Business registration and its Turkish counterpart

Businesses in Belgium are entered in a central business database, and the particulars registered are published in the official gazette. Your Belgian counterparty is used to that two-part logic: the entry and the publication. Its exact equivalent in Türkiye is the certificate of activity obtained from the trade registry directorate together with the announcement in the Turkish Trade Registry Gazette. The announcement shows the company’s incorporation and the changes it has been through; the certificate of activity confirms that it is trading as at today’s date. A signature circular is added for authority to represent, and the articles of association for the field of activity and the shareholding structure. These four documents make up the core of the great majority of commercial files going to Belgium.

Counterparty’s region	Language of translation	Note
Flemish region	Dutch	A French translation may not be accepted
Walloon region	French	A Dutch translation may not be accepted
Brussels	French or Dutch	Confirm with the institution
German-speaking region	German	A small region; rarely comes up

The sworn translator and the chain of attestation

In Belgium an official translation is made and stamped by a sworn translator, and that is what is looked for in a translation produced inside the country. For a translation produced in Türkiye the route runs: the sworn translator’s signature, notarisation, then the apostille. For entry in the register and for court and notarial procedures the route through a sworn translator inside Belgium is the safer one; commercial counterparties and buyers generally accept a certified translation prepared in Türkiye. Belgium is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention; verifying the current list of parties through the HCCH and getting a one-line written confirmation from your counterparty costs less than preparing the file twice.

Customs paperwork moves on a separate track

The port of Antwerp is one of the Turkish exporter’s points of entry into Europe, and every consignment passing through it generates a thick file of paperwork. Most of that file never reaches a translator’s desk. Proof of origin falls within the chambers’ competence, preferential tariff documents are completed with the customs administration’s endorsement, and the forms are printed in several languages. The invoice, the packing list and the transport document are drawn up in a foreign language from the outset. The chain of translation and attestation works only for texts that place obligations on the parties: distribution and agency agreements, guarantee texts, powers of attorney, registry entries and court papers. In files prepared without separating these two tracks, a large part of the budget goes on approvals that were never needed.

What is peculiar about applications to institutions in Brussels

There is one further heading that sets Belgium apart from other markets: the European institutions and a great many international organisations are based here. The supplier registrations and tenders of these bodies are governed not by Belgian national legislation but by their own procurement rules, and they generally ask for a file in English or French. In other words, in the same city and within the same week you can meet two different sets of rules: a document in Dutch for a local customer, a file in English for an institution in Brussels. These bodies also define the level of attestation themselves in their specifications; some are content with a simple agency declaration, others want an apostilled document. Reading the documents annex of the specification line by line matters more here than anywhere else.

Powers of attorney, the tender file and the commonest ground for rejection

Because it houses the European institutions, Belgium sees heavy tendering and supplier registration traffic; the commonest ground for rejection here is a language mismatch, with the date of the registry entry in second place. Specifications ask for a currently dated copy. With a power of attorney the order never varies: signature before a notary, then the apostille, and the translation last of all. The principal’s authority to represent has to be supported by a current registry entry and a signature circular. Read the form of delivery from the specification; even where filing is through an electronic portal, you may be asked to keep a stamped, wet-signed set to hand. You can follow the rules of other markets in our country guide and detail document by document on our document page, and upload your file to the quotation form.

What is described here rests on common practice; national legislation and institutional practice may be updated. Confirming the current requirement before you apply saves time.