September 28, 2026
What the October 6 agenda says
On October 6, the committee of member-state experts meets in Brussels with 25 minutes set aside for a “continuation of discussions” on the Netherlands’ request to extend its approval of FSD (Supervised) across the bloc, and no vote. Reuters reported the agenda on September 25 and put December as the earliest apparent opportunity for a vote. The committee has discussed the file at two earlier meetings without deciding it, and the Dutch regulator told Reuters it would not speculate on the discussion, the vote or any outcome.
April 10 is where the file starts. That day the RDW approved FSD (Supervised) with provisional validity limited to the Netherlands, describing it as a driver-controlled assistance system: the driver stays responsible, must be able to take over at once, and is watched by eye-tracking and hand sensors. EU-wide validity needs a qualified majority in the committee, at least 15 of the 27 member states representing 65% of the bloc’s population.
Seven member states have recognized the Dutch approval nationally, by trade-press tallies: the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Czechia, the last on September 22. On August 3, GCBC’s piece on France’s refusal counted five and argued that a failed or delayed fall vote would leave those national approvals standing and fragment the map. Eight weeks later the count is seven and the vote has moved to December at the earliest, so the patchwork is the operating state until December at least.
What the Belgian test measured
Belgium is one of the seven. On September 24, the Belgian group Johanna.be published a road test of the system in a country where drivers can already use it: about 400 km over three days in July, in and around Brussels, by Reuters’ account. FSD exceeded the limit on 55% of the tested 30 km/h segments, averaging 44 km/h on those, and at 42% of the 20 km/h residential locations examined.
44 km/h is the figure the report builds on. Citing the World Health Organization, Johanna.be says a pedestrian’s risk of death at 44 km/h is almost six times the risk at 30 km/h. The group also found the car’s display showing 50 km/h in the large majority of tested 30 km/h zones, and recorded FSD repeatedly trying to overtake cyclists on cycle streets, where Belgian traffic rules forbid it.
Johanna.be credits FSD with “generally cautious and courteous” behaviour toward pedestrians and cyclists and says that cannot make up for the speed and rule failures. The group sent its findings to the RDW and to the Flemish transport ministry on September 7 and asked both to reassess the approvals already granted. A spokesperson for the Flemish ministry told Reuters the driver “remains 100% responsible” and must intervene when the system errs; Tesla did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
What December decides, and what would be a surprise
December’s vote, if it comes, decides whether one national approval becomes an approval for all 27. The seven recognizing states are less than half of the 15 a qualified majority needs, so at least eight more states would have to join them, with enough population between them all to reach 65%. France’s July objection named speeding and driver inattention, and the Belgian report now puts a measured rate on the first of those from inside an approving state.
Three outcomes would count as a surprise before then: a vote added to the October 6 agenda, any of the seven withdrawing or conditioning its national recognition in answer to the Johanna.be report, or a December agenda that again lists only discussion. For Tesla’s European sales, the practical result of the delay is the one the August piece described: the same software, legal in seven markets, waiting in twenty.
