Parliament building delayed for five more years

Date: 28/10/04

THE European Parliament's new extension in Brussels may not be ready for another five years, it has emerged.

The huge building, overlooking Place Luxembourg, is primarily designed to accommodate staff and MEPs from new member states who were elected this summer. It was supposed to open by 2007.

But Parliamentary sources say that the work on the 75,000 square metre complex is now unlikely to be completed until the next European elections in 2009.

When complete, the building, officially known as D4 and D5, will have 450 offices, five meeting rooms, accommodating between 135 and 450 people, an audio-visual room, car park, restaurant and bar.

Some have compared it with the European Commission's headquarters, the Berlaymont, which has just re-opened.

Like the Berlaymont, the Parliamentary building has been hit by a series of delays.

Parliament officials were engaged in talks with local residents before work could even start and, as the building is situated on top of a railway line, part of the rail station above it had to be demolished.

The latest delay is thought to be caused by problems connected with the station.

The extension is designed to relieve a shortage of office space in the Parliament's existing buildings and any further delay will only exacerbate these problems, says the Union Syndicale, an EU staff union.

Martin Wooding, a senior Union Syndicale official, said: "There is an enormous shortage of office space as it is and if the extension is not ready for up to five years it will mean staff will have to put up with some totally unsatisfactory conditions for even longer."

Article reports that the European Parliament's new extension in Brussels might not be ready for another five years. The building, overlooking Place Luxembourg, was primarily designed to accommodate staff and MEPs from new Member States who were elected in summer 2004. It had been supposed to open by 2007.