Between the inhabitants of Brussels and the European institutions, a still difficult cohabitation

BRUSSELS LETTER

If you have the chance, ask a Brussels resident what he thinks of the presence of the European institutions in the Belgian capital. You will hear the answer that where they have settled, they have ravaged the cityscape, raised property prices and caused endless traffic jams. We will also tell you that the European district, around the Robert-Schuman roundabout, has lost its soul, as offices have replaced housing. Clearly, the European Union (EU), which has such a hard time getting closer to citizens, has not yet succeeded in integrating into the city that has hosted its servants for decades now.

To better understand this history, we must go back to the Treaty of Rome in 1957 and the beginnings of community construction. The six founding countries (West Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) cannot agree on the future seat of Europe. Berlin rejects Nice, too “Club Med”, little Luxembourg fears a massive influx of foreigners… Brussels ends up establishing itself as a provisional solution, which will remain so until the Edinburgh compromise in December 1992.

In 1958, therefore, the Commission moved into a mansion in the heart of the future European quarter. Very quickly cramped, it moved, in 1969, a few hundred meters away, in an ungracious building that the Belgian State had built after having destroyed the Berlaymont convent. Local real estate developers have sniffed out the good deal: they are buying back these charming old-fashioned mansions to transform them into uninteresting office buildings – with building permits that are not always very legal -, and for Rent them at a high price to institutions, which keep getting bigger as Europe expands and rises.

“We installed the cowboy-style institutions”

The installation of the European Parliament in Brussels – later, because it was not until 1979 that MEPs were elected – was just as messy. In the absence of a political decision, the Legislative Assembly ended up having two addresses. One in Strasbourg, where it has its headquarters. The other in the Belgian capital, where most of its activities are held and where the construction of the buildings that now house it was carried out in an anarchic manner: when it began in 1989, investors advanced masked and claim to work on building an international convention center …

You have 57.48% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.

source site