Brussels isn’t really the capital of Europe – it’s barely the capital of Belgium according to certain Flemish politicians – and if it were it would be a disappointing one. It turns out that the alphabet and antipathy between the six countries that formed the European Economic Community, the 1957 forerunner of the current European Union, had much to do with the EU’s institutions being permanently located in Belgium.
The original decision was to rotate the institutions betwen the six members – Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany – on a regular basis, and in the order of the alphabet, until a permanent home was agreed upon. By the time Belgium came to relinquish its position as host, the other countries still couldn’t decide on a permanent home so everything remained in Brussels.
Realising a decision might take some time – a feature of the EU – the Belgian government seized the moment and started building more office space. They bought and destroyed a 17th-century Augustinian convent and girls’ school, the Convent of the Ladies of Berlaymont. Replacing historic buildings with the modern monstrosities that are the EU institutions became the pattern for the European district and Brussels as a whole.
The current EU Quarter was mostly built on the ruins of the Leopold Quarter (named for the Butcher of the Congo), a once prestigious residential area built for the Brussels elite following Belgian independence in 1830. Terraces of neoclassical and Art Nouveau town houses were torn down, as was the 19th century Brussels-Luxembourg railway station and an old brewery, to make way for the European Parliament.
In a process known as Brusselization, decades of corporate real estate development replaced homes with profoundly ugly office buildings, simultaneously displacing tens of thousands of residents and killing off once vibrant communities in the process. This all took place without a development plan but with the regular flouting of whatever laws existed. It has served Brussels and its residents very poorly.
Brusselization is a feature of the entire city, with many historic buildings bulldozed and replaced by architectural nightmares. The area I live in, now rebranded as the Northern Quarter, is a good example of how to successfully rip the heart out of whole districts. The 1970s ‘Manhattan Plan’ aimed to transform the area around Gare du Nord into a massive American-style business district. It failed. Miserably.
Not before thousands of homes had been bulldozed and communities had been evicted though, leaving a wasteland, a couple of skyscrapers, and a truly unpleasant red light district next to the railway station. It’s taken 50 years to start to turn the area around. That is happening, but Brussels is a politically divided place and, with debts of over €15 billion, has no money to do even the basics. Still, at least we have a government now.
This has many consequences. One of the drivers of the Northern Quarter is the Pompidou Centre, an offshoot of the famed Parisian art centre. It’s three years behind schedule but slated to open in November. The only problem is that it doesn’t appear to have a budget to fulfil its vision. What should be a magnet for cultural rejuvenation in the same way the Guggenheim has been for Bilbao risks becoming a White Elephant.
It’s director just resigned and the Pompidou is recruiting someone not based on a proven ability to run an international cultural centre, but on being able to navigate local politics on a shoestring budget. Expectations have been reset predictably low. This type of ‘crisis’ seems normal for Brussels. A new metro line is years behind schedule, horrendously over budget and beset by a corruption probe into in the multi-billion euro tendering process.
They also want to destroy the historic Palais du Midi which is on the metro route. Then take the farce of the Schuman roundabout next to the European Commission. Years of development to make it a shady square has resulted in a barren public space now known as ‘Europe’s largest frying pan‘ after it ran out of money. This was made worse by the city begging the EU for funds to finish the project.
It makes Brussels a hard place to love. Yet we’ve been here for over five years. No one is more surprised by this than me. It’s probably true that my ambivalence to living in this city makes me a pessimistic critic, but that’s because there is so much that’s good about Brussels and it could be so much better – for everyone. The farcical way it’s partisan politics (don’t) work and the city is run needs fundamental change.
Except when driving like homicidal lunatics, Bruxellois are typically a friendly bunch. Why they aren’t in the streets protesting for their elected representatives to be and do better is a mystery. After all, a city that has a restaurant featuring a sushi train can’t be all bad…
