Playing host to EU institutions is mixed blessing for Brussels

Date: 10/06/1999

By Simon Coss

BRUSSELS has a love-hate relationship with the European Union. The city has become so synonymous with all things EU that it is perhaps the only capital in the world whose name is not used as a shorthand way of referring to the national government.

If newspapers refer to 'London' or 'Paris' as being unhappy about something, then everyone knows which political leaders are involved.

But if 'Brussels' makes a declaration, journalists will certainly not be asking Belgian Premier Jean-Luc Dehaene to explain what he is up to. They will instead be knocking at the door of the European Commission, Council of Ministers or European Parliament.

It is this dichotomy which is at the heart of the Brussels-EU debate. Many observers say that in taking on the mantle of 'Capital of Europe', the city has had to sacrifice much of its 'Belgianness'.

Certainly, many native inhabitants of the city are less than enthusiastic about the presence of the European institutions on their soil. They complain that rich Eurocrats, national diplomats and high-flying employees of international companies have forced house prices and rents up by so much in some areas of the city that ordinary Belgians can no longer afford to live there.

The problem is particularly bad in the Schuman area where the EU institutions are based, and in the city's leafy southern suburbs where many members of the international community have bought houses.

Local inhabitants also complain that many historic old streets - most of them around Schuman - have been bulldozed to make way for anonymous office blocks designed to serve either the EU institutions or the huge lobbying community which lives off them.

" This used to be a vibrant, lively and artistically interesting neighbourhood. Then in 1971, the European institutions came to Brussels and since then they have taken over the entire area," complained one disgruntled resident.

But while the Bruxellois continue to complain about the architectural nightmare that is the EU quarter, the fact is that nearly all of the destruction wrought in that part of the city was ordered by the Belgian authorities themselves.

Eager to cash in on the arrival of so many well-heeled outsiders, the country's federal, regional and municipal authorities were happy to sanction - and in many cases pay for - the building blitz which is still going on today.

Indeed, the Commission has confessed that it is somewhat embarrassed at the almost permanent proliferation of building sites around its Brussels headquarters.

" I live in Brussels myself, and I am just as concerned about the situation as longer-term inhabitants," said Acting European Commissioner Erkki Liikanen recently. "I am often struck by the look on people's faces when they visit this part of the city for the first time. They see nothing but traffic jams, abandoned houses, endless building sites and roads in a terrible state of repair."

But while the arrival of the EU institutions in Brussels may have caused some headaches for the city, it is also undeniable that they have brought with them enormous financial benefits.

The city has one of Europe's busiest airports, a huge number of major international companies have their European headquarters in Brussels, and most of the world's biggest hotel chains have a presence. The city also boasts a vast number of top-class restaurants as well as many shops selling luxury goods.

According to a recent study commissioned by the Brussels regional government, EU institutions occupy 13% of all office space in Brussels and plough more than €4 billion a year into the Belgian economy.

Between 1994 and 1998, the number of jobs generated by international bodies in Brussels, including the EU institutions and NATO, has increased from 55,000 to 62,000, of which half are held by Belgians.

Of the 20,000 EU civil servants working in the city, 26% are Belgian, and an estimated 8,000 people are employed in jobs related to the international institutions, with most of them active either as lobbyists or journalists. The report argues that, in terms of the diplomatic community, this makes Brussels as important as Washington DC.

But there is a downside to all this high-flying diplomatic activity in the Belgian capital.

The study also found a widening gap between 'haves' and 'have-nots' in Brussels, with the average income of city residents standing at just €8,600 a year, compared with €9,700 in Flanders and Wallonia.

The report also found that 1% of Brussels' indigenous population had moved away over the past four years, indicating that the capital's poorer inhabitants are now finding it too expensive to stay in their former homes. Figures also show that over the same period, the number of foreigners in the city increased by 6%.

Belgium in figures (1996)

Total population: 10,170,000

Foreign residents (included in total): 912,000

Population according to language region:

Dutch-speaking region: 5,899,000

French-speaking region: 3,321,000

German-speaking region: 70,000

Greater Brussels (bilingual): 951,000

State budget: (in €billion)

Treasury receipts: 57.7

Treasury expenditure: 65.0

National debt: 238.0

National output: (in €billion)

Gross National Product 208.0

Origin of GNP:

Agriculture, forestry, fisheries: 2.5

Extractive industries: 0.5

Manufacturing industries: 43.7

Building and construction: 9.7

Electricity, gas, water: 5.1

Trade, banking, insurance, residential buildings: 54.9

Transport and communications: 15.7

Services: 64.7

Corrections: 9.0

Prices and wages:

Average consumer price index (1988 = 100) 122.73

Average industrial production price index (1980 = 100) 138.6

Index figures of gross average hourly earnings in industry (April 1995 = 100) 102

Foreign trade of Belgo-Lux economic union: (in €billion)

Imports 120.2

Exports 128.9

Trade balance 0.87

Source: FVD-SFI and National Institute for Statistics

Feature on Belgium as it holds its General Election. The country is beset by problems ranging from the chicken feed scare (see also Sections 12.8.b and 13.4.k) to linguistic conflict.