Brussels and the European Union

[5] In 1951, the leaders of six European countries (Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, France, Italy and West Germany) signed the Treaty of Paris, which created the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), and with this new community came the first institutions: the High Authority, Council of Ministers, Court of Justice and Common Assembly.

This agreement was temporary, and plans were set to relocate the institutions to Saarbrücken (Germany), which would serve as a "European District", but this did not occur.

[9] Brussels waited until only a month before talks to enter its application, which received unofficial backing by several member states.

In the meantime, the Assembly would stay in Strasbourg and the new Commissions would meet alternatively at the ECSC seat and at the Château of Val-Duchesse, in Brussels (headquarters of a temporary committee).

[11] Brussels missed out in its bid for a single seat due to a weak campaign from the Belgian Government in negotiations.

The government eventually pushed its campaign and started large-scale construction, renting office space in the east of the city for use by the institutions.

[13][14] A Committee of Experts deemed Brussels to be the one option to have all the necessary features for a European capital: a large, active metropolis, without a congested centre or poor quality of housing; good communications with other member states' capitals, including to major commercial and maritime markets; vast internal transport links; an important international business centre; plentiful housing for European civil servants; and an open economy.

As a capital of a small country, it also could not claim to use the presence of institutions to exert pressure on other member states, it being more of a neutral territory between the major European powers.

[17] Hence, the status quo was maintained with some adjustments; the Commission, with most of its departments, would be in Brussels; as would the Council, except for April, June and October, when it would meet in Luxembourg.

[21] Yet, despite the agreement to host these institutions in Brussels, its formal status was still unclear, and hence the city sought to strengthen its hand with major investment in buildings and infrastructure (including Schuman metro station).

[21] The 1965 agreement was a source of contention for the Parliament, which wished to be closer to the other institutions, so it began moving some of its decision-making bodies, committee and political group meetings to Brussels.

With the status of Brussels now clear, NGOs, lobbyists, advisory bodies and regional offices started basing themselves in the quarter near the institutions.

The reason for the move was in part due to the experience of the Belgian police in dealing with protesters and the fixed facilities in Brussels.

There is also a greater number of press corps in the city with media outlets in every EU member state having a Brussels correspondent and there are 10,000 lobbyists registered.

[44] Brussels is located in one of the most urbanised regions of Europe, between Paris, London, the Rhine-Ruhr (Germany), and the Randstad (Netherlands).

Via high speed trains, Brussels is around 1hr 25min from Paris, 1hr 50min from London, Amsterdam and Cologne (with adjacent Düsseldorf and the Rhine-Ruhr), and 3hr from Frankfurt.

[36] Brussels is the hub of a range of national roads, the main ones being clockwise: the N1 (N to Breda), N2 (E to Maastricht), N3 (E to Aachen), N4 (SE to Luxembourg) N5 (S to Rheims), N6 (S to Maubeuge), N7 (SW to Lille), N8 (W to Koksijde) and N9 (NW to Ostend).

[48] The architect Benoit Moritz has argued that the area has been an elite enclave surrounded by poorer districts since the mid-19th century, and that the contrast today is comparable to an Indian city.

[49] The quarter's land-use is very homogenous and criticised by some, for example the former Commission President, Romano Prodi, for being an administrative ghetto isolated from the rest of the city (though this view is not shared by all).

[49] The building features a "lantern shaped" structure surrounded by a glass atrium made up of recycled windows from across Europe, intended to appear "united from afar but showing their diversity up close.

"[49] The European Parliament's buildings are located to the south between Leopold Park and the Place du Luxembourg, over Brussels-Luxembourg railway station, which is underground.

However, the decision-making bodies of the Parliament, along with its committees and some of its plenary sessions, are held in Brussels to the extent that three-quarters of its activity take place in the city.

There is also EUROCONTROL, a semi-EU air traffic control agency covering much of Europe and the Western European Union, which is a non-EU military organisation currently merging into the EU's CFSP, and is headquartered in Haren, on the north-eastern perimeter of the City of Brussels.

A further 20,000 people are working in Brussels due to the presence of the institutions (generating €2 billion a year) and 2000 foreign companies drawn into the city employ 80,000 multilingual locals.

[59] However, there is considerable division between the two communities, with local Brussels residents feeling excluded from the European Quarter (a "white collar ghetto").

[56][57][60] In September 2007, then-Commissioner for Administrative Affairs, Siim Kallas, together with then-Minister-President of the Brussels-Capital Region, Charles Picqué, unveiled plans for rebuilding the district.

The road would be reduced from four lanes to two, be returned to two way traffic (rather than all west-bound), and the architects proposed a tram line to run down the centre.

[64] Given the delays and cost of the Berlaymont and other projects, the Commissioner emphasised that the new plans would offer "better value for money" and that the designs would be subject to an international architectural competition.

[49] A pedestrian and visual link would be created between the Berlaymont and Leopold Park by demolishing sections of the ground to fourth floors of the Justus Lipsius, the south "bland" facade of which would be redesigned.

The suggestive nature of the questions led to massive protests in Flanders (especially around Brussels), causing it to be unlikely to ever hold a language-related census again in Belgium.