Commission crèche plans deadlocked

The European Commission has admitted to "substantial delays" in increasing nursery accommodation for the children of Brussels-based staff.

With Commission officials being put on waiting lists for crèche places, Siim Kallas, the commissioner for administration, said temporary solutions had been found to alleviate the current shortage, but he estimated there was "an urgent need to provide 450 nursery places".

The comments came in a report on the accommodation of Commission staff in Brussels and Luxembourg that was released on Wednesday (5 September) and are a foretaste of a review of nursery accommodation due out by the end of the year.

The Commission had hoped to expand its crèche at Boulevard Clovis by the redevelopment of the adjacent site, formerly occupied by Wagon-Lits. But work on that site has stalled after the developer was imprisoned. The Commission was also hoping to establish a crèche near Place Jourdan on a site between rue Général Leman and rue du Cornet. But negotiations between the Commission and the mayor of the commune of Ixelles in which it lies are deadlocked. The mayor has concerns about increased traffic near the site and wants the crèche to reserve some places for the children of Ixelles residents, which the Commission believes is against EU budget rules.

To accompany the report on office accommodation in Brussels and Luxembourg, Kallas made a joint declaration of intent with Charles Picqué, minister-president of the Brussels regional government. Their aim is to reconfigure Commission office accommodation in the European quarter of Brussels in fewer, larger buildings. A feature of the plan is to concentrate Commission offices on the axis of rue de la Loi, improving the accommodation there and moving staff from offices elsewhere in the European quarter, such as square de Meeus. The hope is to have shops on the ground floor of the rue de la Loi buildings and to devote space in the side-streets to apartments. The space vacated by the Commission elsewhere in the district would be used to improve the mix of housing and shops.

The regional government is investigating the feasibility of extending the tunnels to the inner ring-road to take traffic passing through the European quarter under rue de la Loi. The surface would be reserved for local traffic. The Brussels government wants to create an architectural and planning competition to redesign the rue de la Loi area. The competition would deliver its verdict in 2009.

Picqué has already declared himself in favour of decentralising EU offices so that they are less concentrated in the European quarter. The Commission’s policy document comes down in favour of redeveloping the European quarter as the main site of Commission activity, but having up to three other districts, each with at least 100,000 square metres of office space.

In 2005, the Commission broke off negotiations with AXA over building a conference centre at Rond-Point Schuman on the site of the old JECL building. The Commission policy document says that "particular attention will be devoted to the development of new conference facilities", but makes no mention of any alternative sites.

The European Commission has admitted to "substantial delays" in increasing nursery accommodation for the children of Brussels-based staff.