Brussels And The EU
History
| Politics and government of Brussels |
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Birth of the European Communities
In 1951, the leaders of six European countries (Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, France, Italy and West Germany) signed the Treaty of Paris, which created the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), and with this new community came the first institutions: the High Authority, Council of Ministers, Court of Justice and Common Assembly. A number of cities were considered, and Brussels would have been accepted as a compromise, but the Belgian Government put all its effort into backing Liège (Wallonia), opposed by all the other members, and was unable to formally back Brussels due to internal instability.
Agreement remained elusive and a seat had to be found before the institutions could begin work, hence Luxembourg was chosen as a provisional seat, though with the Common Assembly in Strasbourg as that was the only city with a large enough hemicycle (the one used by the Council of Europe). This agreement was temporary, and plans were set to relocate the institutions to Saarbrücken (Germany), which would serve as a "European District", but this did not occur.
The 1957 Treaty of Rome established two new communities: the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom). These shared the Assembly and Court of the ECSC but created two new sets of Councils and Commissions (equivalent to the ECSC's High Authority). Discussions on the seats of the institutions were left until the last moment before the treaties came into force, so as not to interfere with ratification.
Brussels waited until only a month before talks to enter its application, which received unofficial backing by several member states. The members agreed in principle to locate the executives, Councils, and the assembly in one city, though could still not decide which city, so they put the decision off for six months. In the meantime, the Assembly would stay in Strasbourg and the new Commissions would meet alternatively at the ECSC seat and at the Château of Val-Duchesse, in Brussels (headquarters of a temporary committee). The Councils would meet wherever their Presidents wanted to. In practice, this was at Val-Duchesse until autumn 1958 when it moved to central Brussels, at 2, Rue Ravenstein/Ravensteinstraat.
Installation in Brussels and early development
Brussels missed out in its bid for a single seat due to a weak campaign from the Belgian Government in negotiations. The government eventually pushed its campaign and started large-scale construction, renting office space in the east of the city for use by the institutions. On 11 February 1958, the six member states' governments concluded an unofficial agreement on the setting-up of community offices. On the principle that it would take two years after a final agreement to prepare the appropriate office space, full services were set up in Brussels in expectation of a report from the Committee of Experts looking into the matter of a final seat.
While waiting for the completion of the building on the Avenue de la Joyeuse Entrée/Blijde Inkomstlaan, offices moved to 51–53, Rue Belliard/Belliardstraat on 1 April 1958 (later exclusively used by the Euratom Commission), though with the numbers of European civil servants rapidly expanding, services were set up in buildings on the Rue du Marais/Broekstraat, the Avenue de Broqueville/De Broquevillelaan, the Avenue de Tervueren/Tervurenlaan, the Rue d'Arlon/Aarlenstraat, the Rue Joseph II/Jozef II-straat, the Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat and the Avenue de Kortenberg/Kortenberglaan. The Belgian Government further provided newly built offices on the Mont des Arts/Kunstberg (22, Rue des Sols/Stuiversstraat) for the Council of Ministers' Secretariat and European Investment Bank.
A Committee of Experts deemed Brussels to be the one option to have all the necessary features for a European capital: a large, active metropolis, without a congested centre or poor quality of housing; good communications with other member states' capitals, including to major commercial and maritime markets; vast internal transport links; an important international business centre; plentiful housing for European civil servants; and an open economy. Furthermore, it was located halfway between France, Germany and the United Kingdom (as in the case of other seats of European institutions), and on the border between the two major European civilisations: Latin and Germanic; and was at the centre of the first post-war integration experiment: the Benelux. As a capital of a small country, it also could not claim to use the presence of institutions to exert pressure on other member states, it being more of a neutral territory between the major European powers. The committee's report was approved of by the Council, Parliament and Commissions, however, the Council was still unable to achieve a final vote on the issue, and hence put off the issue for a further three years, despite all the institutions now leading in moving to Brussels.
The decision was put off due to the varied national positions preventing a unanimous decision. Luxembourg fought to keep the ECSC or have compensation; France fought for Strasbourg; Italy, initially backing Paris, fought for any Italian city to thwart Luxembourg and Strasbourg. Meanwhile, the Parliament passed a series of resolutions complaining about the whole situation of spreading itself across three cities, though unable to do anything about it.
Merger Treaty: political and town-planning status quo
The 1965 Merger Treaty was seen as an appropriate moment to finally resolve the issue; the separate Commissions and Councils were to be merged. Luxembourg, concerned about losing the High Authority, proposed a split between Brussels and Luxembourg. The Commission and Council were to be located in Brussels, with Luxembourg keeping the Court and Parliamentary Assembly, together with a few of the Commission's departments. This was largely welcomed by the member states, but opposed by France, not wishing to see the Parliament leave Strasbourg, and by the Parliament itself, which wished to be with the executives and was further annoyed by the fact that it was not consulted on the matter of its own location.
Hence, the status quo was maintained with some adjustments; the Commission, with most of its departments, would be in Brussels; as would the Council, except for April, June and October, when it would meet in Luxembourg. In addition, Luxembourg would keep the Court of Justice, some of the Commission's departments and the Secretariat of the European Parliament. Strasbourg would continue to host the Parliament. Joining the Commission was the merged Council's Secretariat. The ECSC's Secretariat merged with the EEC's and EAEC's in the Ravenstein building, which then moved to the Charlemagne building, next to the Berlaymont building, in 1971.
In Brussels, staff continued to be spread across a number of buildings, on the Rue Belliard, the Avenue de la Joyeuse Entrée, the Rue du Marais and at the Mont des Arts. The first purpose-built building was the Berlaymont building in 1958, designed to house 3000 officials, which soon proved too small, causing the institution to spread out across the neighbourhood. Yet, despite the agreement to host these institutions in Brussels, its formal status was still unclear, and hence the city sought to strengthen its hand with major investment in buildings and infrastructure (including the metro station Schuman). However, these initial developments were sporadic with little town planning and based on speculation (see Brusselisation).
The 1965 agreement was a source of contention for the Parliament, which wished to be closer to the other institutions, so it began moving some of its decision-making bodies, committee and political group meetings to Brussels. In 1983, it went further by symbolically holding a plenary session in Brussels, in the basement of the Mont des Arts Congress Centre. However, the meeting was a fiasco and the poor facilities partly discredited Brussels' aim of being the sole seat of the institutions. Things looked up for Brussels when, in 1985, the Parliament gained its own plenary chamber in the city (on the Rue Wiertz/Wiertzstraat) for some of its part-sessions. This was done unofficially due to the sensitive nature of the Parliament's seat, with the building being constructed as an "international conference centre". When France unsuccessfully challenged the Parliament's half-move to Brussels in the Court of Justice, the Parliament's victory led it to build full facilities in the city.
Edinburgh European Council compromise
In response the Edinburgh European Council of 1992, the EU adopted a final agreement on the location of its institutions. According to this decision, which was subsequently annexed to the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997, although the Parliament was required to hold some of its sessions, including its budgetary session, in Strasbourg, additional sessions and committees could meet in Brussels. It also reaffirmed the presence of the Commission and Council in the city.
Shortly before this summit, the Commission moved into the Breydel building, at 45, Avenue d'Auderghem/Oudergemlaan. This was due to asbestos being discovered in the Berlaymont, forcing its evacuation in 1989. The Commission threatened to move out of the city altogether, which would have destroyed Brussels's chances of hosting the Parliament, so the Belgian Government stepped in to build the Breydel building a short distance from the Berlaymont, in only 23 months, ensuring the Commission could move in before the Edinburgh Summit. Shortly after Edinburgh, the Parliament bought its new building in Brussels. With the status of Brussels now clear, NGOs, lobbyists, advisory bodies and regional offices started basing themselves in the quarter near the institutions.
The Council, which had been expanding into further buildings as it grew, consolidated once more in the Justus Lipsius building, and in 2002, it was agreed that the European Council should also be based in Brussels, having previously moved between different cities as the EU's Presidency rotated. From 2004, all Councils were meant to be held in Brussels; however, some extraordinary meetings are still held elsewhere. The reason for the move was in part due to the experience of the Belgian police in dealing with protesters and the fixed facilities in Brussels.
Status
The Commission employs 25,000 people and the Parliament employs about 6,000 people. Because of this concentration, Brussels is a preferred location for any move towards a single seat for Parliament. Despite it not formally being the "capital" of the EU, some commentators see the fact that Brussels enticed an increasing number of the Parliament's sessions to the city, in addition to the main seats of the other two main political institutions, as making Brussels the de facto capital of the EU. Brussels is frequently labelled as the "capital" of the EU, particularly in publications by local authorities, the Commission and press. Indeed, Brussels interprets the 1992 agreement on seats as declaring Brussels as the capital.
There are two further cities hosting major institutions, Luxembourg (judicial and second seats) and Strasbourg (Parliament's main seat). Authorities in Strasbourg and organisations based there also refer to Strasbourg as the "capital" of Europe and Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg are also referred to as the joint capitals of Europe. In 2010, then-Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, while speaking to the European Parliament, said: "As you probably know, some American politicians and American journalists refer to Washington, D.C. as the 'capital of the free world.' But it seems to me that in this great city, which boasts 1,000 years of history and which serves as the capital of Belgium, the home of the European Union, and the headquarters for NATO, this city has its own legitimate claim to that title."
Lobbyists and journalists
Brussels is a centre of political activity with ambassadors to Belgium, NATO and the EU being based in the city. It hosts 120 international institutions, 181 embassies (intra muros) and more than 2,500 diplomats, making it the second centre of diplomatic relations in the world (after New York City). There is also a greater number of press corps in the city with media outlets in every EU member state having a Brussels correspondent and there are 10,000 lobbyists registered. The presence of the EU and the other international bodies has, for example, led to there being more ambassadors and journalists in Brussels than in Washington, D.C.
Brussels is third in the number of international conferences it hosts, also becoming one of the largest convention centres in the world. The total number of journalists accredited to the EU institutions was 955 as of late October 2015. This is marginally higher than 2012, when there were 931 reporters, and almost the same as after the enlargement of 2004. In addition to the 955 journalists accredited to the EU, there are 358 technicians (e.g. cameramen, photographers, producers, etc.) bringing the total number of accreditation badges to 1313. Belgium supplies by far the largest share of technicians with 376, with Germany on 143 and France on 105.
Accessibility
Brussels is located in one of the most urbanised regions of Europe, between Paris, London, the Rhine-Ruhr (Germany), and the Randstad (Netherlands). Via high speed trains, Brussels is around 1hr 25min from Paris, 1hr 50min from London, Amsterdam and Cologne (with adjacent Düsseldorf and the Rhine-Ruhr), and 3hr from Frankfurt. The "Eurocap-rail" project plans to improve Brussels' links to the south to Luxembourg and Strasbourg.
Brussels is the hub of a range of national roads, the main ones being clockwise: the N1 (N to Breda), N2 (E to Maastricht), N3 (E to Aachen), N4 (SE to Luxembourg) N5 (S to Rheims), N6 (S to Maubeuge), N7 (SW to Lille), N8 (W to Koksijde) and N9 (NW to Ostend). The region is skirted by the European route E19 (N-S) and the E40 (E-W), while the E411 leads away to the SE.
Brussels is also served by Brussels Airport, located in the nearby Flemish municipality of Zaventem, and by the smaller Brussels South Charleroi Airport, located near Charleroi (Wallonia), some 50 km (30 mi) from Brussels.
European Quarter
Most of the European Union's Brussels-based institutions are located within its European Quarter (French: Quartier Européen; Dutch: Europese Wijk), which is the unofficial name of the area corresponding to the approximate triangle between Brussels Park, Cinquantenaire Park and Leopold Park (with the European Parliament's hemicycle extending into the latter). The Commission and Council are located on either side of the Rue de la Loi at the heart of this area near Schuman railway station and the Robert Schuman Roundabout.
The European Parliament is located over Brussels-Luxembourg railway station, next to the Place du Luxembourg/Luxemburgplein. The area, much of which was known as the Leopold Quarter for most of its history, was historically residential, an aspect which was rapidly lost as the institutions moved in, although the change from a residential area to a more office oriented one had already been underway for some time before the arrival of the European institutions.
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