Space is city’s final frontier

Date: 08/05/1997

WHEN the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was unexpectedly forced to move from Paris in 1967, the Belgian government offered it alternative headquarters in Brussels.

Time was of the essence. A site was made available on the edge of the city near the airport and premises hurriedly erected. The arrangement was expected to be a short-term, temporary solution for three years before the transatlantic military alliance moved to a new HQ at the Heysel Stadium, which had hosted the 1958 international exposition.

Three decades later, NATO is still on the same site, using the same buildings, now badly in need of repair. More importantly, as the organisation prepares to expand eastwards, the existing facilities are inadequate and a major building programme is inevitable.

Satisfying NATO's demands will almost certainly give Belgium yet another headache to add to the occasional bouts of migraine it suffers from its responsibilities as host to two major international organisations in the throes of expansion.

To tackle the NATO problem, the Belgian government has now set up a working group to determine the alliance's future infrastructure needs and the organisation itself has detailed two senior officials to determine its requirements by the end of the month.

“Obviously we need more space. We are suffering the classic problem of international organisations. We have outgrown our original surroundings and are already at full stretch,” explains one NATO source.

The pressure is coming from three different directions. The first, and most immediate, is the decision by the Belgian government to allow all 27 of NATO's partners, if they wish, to establish separate diplomatic missions to the alliance, instead of entrusting the role, as at present, to their bilateral embassies to Belgium.

Most of these will almost certainly be on or near the existing NATO site.

Secondly, plans are in the pipeline to establish a joint NATO/Russian council - possibly followed by a similar body with Ukraine - increasing both country's diplomatic presence in the area.

In the slightly longer term, there is the prospect of between three and five central and eastern European countries joining the alliance before the turn of the century - a decision which NATO leaders are due to take within the next three months. While NATO members will shoulder the costs of the construction work involved - estimated to be around 2 billion ecu at least - responsibility for ensuring that sufficient land is available lies with the Belgian host government.

With public sector expenditure being cut as the country struggles to meet the entry requirements for the euro, criticism is likely to grow if NATO enlargement places a major burden on national finances. But military sources insist that the alliance's expansion can only be beneficial as jobs are lost elsewhere in the Belgian economy.

“We could see NATO staff doubling to 6,000 and, with ancillary bodies and defence interests, even reaching 10,000 eventually. That could give Belgium a short-term headache, but in the long-term it will have a major economic impact. As factories close, international institutions opening is one element of goods news,” predicts one source.

To date, however, the greatest discomfort - involving difficult political decisions and prominent changes to the Brussels landscape - has been caused not by NATO, but by its cousin the European Union as the Belgian authorities and EU institutions grapple over a host of property problems.

While renovation of the European Commission and Council of Ministers' former headquarters (the Berlaymont and Charlemagne buildings respectively) are no longer sources of topical controversy, unexpected hiccups are disrupting other grandiose projects.

One of the most acute is confronting Federal Minister for Public Works André Flahaut. He has just learnt that the Union has rejected his proposal for reducing overcrowding and carrying out much needed repairs at one of Brussels' two European schools by establishing temporary premises elsewhere in the city.

Alarmed at the prospect of an educational annex being set up for some pupils next door to a sexual offenders prison in the Brussels suburb of Ixelles, the European schools' governing body, the Conseil Supérieur has rejected Flahaut's plan to renovate the former Berkendael school, which has lain empty for four years.

The governors, agreeing with the pupils' parents' association, suggested that the best way of tackling the problems of overcrowding and renovation would be to bring forward completion of the third European school now being constructed in the city.

Although the ball has been firmly thrown back into the Belgian authorities' court, observers see little prospect of an early solution. Flahaut has repeatedly maintained that no alternative to Berkendael exists and he recently predicted that the third European school would not open before 2000.

The federal minister's colleague in the Brussels region government, Hervé Hasquin has an equally daunting task if he is to break the stalemate over the European Parliament's new Brussels headquarters. The institution is refusing to accept the formal hand-over of the final part of the complex until the developer meets fully the terms of the original contract.

With recent local environmental legislation limiting the number of car parking spaces to 900 and the contractors legally committed to providing 2,350 slots, Hasquin, the Brussels minister for public works, tried unsuccessfully to broker a deal with his colleagues late last month.

But he failed to win the necessary backing from fellow ministers for his plan for a temporary solution of 1,800 places - possibly rising over time to the full quota - and will continue his search for a way out of the impasse next week.

“It is up to the regional government to work things out and until it does so, the third stage of our complex belongs to the promoter. The Belgian authorities are certainly more aware of the terms of the contract now,” said one parliamentary source.

The future of the Council of Ministers' Justus Lipsius headquarters is presenting Belgian officials with another perplexing challenge after EU governments refused to accept full ownership of the building because specified work had not been completed by Easter.

“Over a month ago we were asked to finalise the transfer of the building and to consider what would be involved in extending it in the light of future EU enlargement. Then we received a letter saying the Union was refusing to accept formal hand-over of the building. That was somewhat contradictory to our earlier contacts,” complained one Brussels official.

As the Belgian authorities try to bring the various long-running EU building sagas to a close, trouble would appear to be inevitable on the NATO front.

It seems impossible to see how the conflicting timetables can be made to dovetail.

US President Bill Clinton is pressing for the first countries from central and eastern Europe to become full members on 4 April 1999 - the 50th anniversary of the alliance's foundation.

That gives all those concerned less than two years to make the necessary political and practical preparations - a woefully insufficient period according to building experts.

“To construct a public building from scratch generally takes six to eight years. My experience is that five to six years is the minimum and that less than five years is impossible,” explains one senior Belgian official involved in town planning.

Just like their predecessors 30 years ago, the latest NATO arrivals may also have to begin their Brussels sojourn in temporary accommodation.