The introduction of exotic mosquito species (EMS) is a threat to biodiversity and human health in sev-eral European countries. Some exotic Aedes species display high invasion potential and are vector spe-cies of several arboviruses. Belgian federal authorities, federated entities funded an active monitoring project (MEMO, 2017-2020) which aimed at detecting EMS in Belgium. Reliable species identification of all life stages is a prerequisite for such monitoring and therefore the morphological species identifi-cations were validated by DNA-barcoding and PCR amplification of DNA fragments. These methods were translated into a pipeline designed to process large quantities of specimens efficiently and to gen-erate species identifications. As such, it allowed for the reliable identification of the majority of native mosquito species (N=33) in Belgium and all six EMS of main concern to Europe. During MEMO, about 3,300 mosquitoes were DNA-barcoded, collected at 23 points of entry (PoE s) in Belgium. Mon-itoring activities revealed the regular introduction or establishment of three exotic Aedes species at multiple PoE s, viz. Ae. albopictus, Ae. japonicus and Ae. koreicus. Therefore, a follow-up monitoring project, MEMO+, was launched in 2021. In this respect, Ae. albopictus specifically is cause of concern as it can be a vector of pathogens. The species has established overwintering populations in neighbour-ing countries and is spreading northward, reaching Belgium sporadically, probably from nearby estab-lished populations, as Ae. albopictus was collected multiple times along highways. COI sequence data showed that the haplotype composition of Ae. albopictus (N=95) differed between international import companies and parking lots, which may reflect different introduction pathways. Therefore, MEMO+ will implement, in addition to active monitoring at PoE s, passive monitoring, involving citizens report-ing Ae. Albopictus through pictures, to cover a larger geographical area. DNA-based validation of EMS will be implemented for an effective surveillance of potential disease-vectors.