Worth a visit, but is it worth the money?

Brussels tourists should prepare to add a new attraction to their list of must-see sights in the Belgian capital: a new European Parliament Visitors' Centre.

Work fitting out the centre in the recently completed D4 building next to the old Gare du Luxembourg station is not due to start until next February and the centre is not expected to be completed until the end of 2008. But there are already high hopes that the site will attract around 450,000 visitors a year once it is up and running, making it one of the most popular tourist attractions in Brussels.

According to Alexander Kleinig, a Parliament official managing the project, the centre is intended to fill a gap in the Brussels tourist scene by capitalising on the public's thirst for information about the EU's activities in general and the European Parliament in particular. "The centre is motivated by the low turnout in the European Parliament elections and the 'No' votes on the EU constitution," he says.

The initiative for the centre came in March 2002, when the Parliament was seeking planning permission from the Ixelles commune for a new building to provide extra office space. To obtain authorisation, the Parliament had to promise to provide a space in the building that would be open to the general public, including after office hours and at weekends. The new building will also offer public parking.

In July this year, the Parliament's bureau, made up of senior MEPs who deal with administrative issues, decided to create the centre and a request to provide the initial €15.3 million needed to get the centre up and running is expected to be submitted to the Parliament's budgets committee in the autumn.

Kleinig says that the Parliament is already attracting around 150,000 visitors a year, mainly in groups which come during the working week. He cites projections from Lord, the international museum consultancy firm retained by the Parliament, saying that the centre could pull in up to 450,000 visitors a year with proper marketing.

The centre, to which entry would be free, would fit into the Brussels authorities' plans to create a cultural corridor stretching to the centre of town from the Cinquantenaire park, with its commemorative arch and museums.

As part of the centre's design brief to focus on 'active citizenship', one of the main features to attract visitors will be an interactive electronic role-playing game in which visitors get to simulate the experience of the EU institutions passing legislation.

He explains that the Parliament's role-play game will be based on a similar installation in the Danish Folketing which can involve groups of 40-50 and has a waiting list of up to a year.

In the Danish game, participants are divided into political groups and have to deal with a number of draft legislative proposals. He cites examples such as sending troops on a mission to the fictional country of Urania or releasing prisoners and tagging them with radio transmitters. Participants get advice from experts within their groups or from lobbyists. If they change their mind on an issue, a press release is sent to the group headquarters, publicising their dissent.

The game will be part of a section on the role and function of the European Parliament including the role of multilingualism and interpretation.

In addition, there will be a section on European diversity and identity, including a table of how many Europeans have won Olympic gold medals. There will also be a section on European history, focusing on how people lived, worked and travelled across Europe in previous centuries.

A fourth part will focus on legislation adopted by the EU institutions and how it affects citizens in their daily lives.

Kleinig stresses that the centre is not intended to put out propaganda about the Parliament. The emphasis, he says, will be "to give people the chance to experience things, not passively obtain information". People do not realise the volume of legislation that the European Parliament passes, added the official.

Soon, 450,000 EU citizens a year should have less of an excuse for such ignorance.

Brussels tourists should prepare to add a new attraction to their list of must-see sights in the Belgian capital: a new European Parliament Visitors' Centre.

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