Friday

29th Mar 2024

Top EU institution to move into eco-friendly building

Starting in 2013, EU ministers and heads of state will meet in a new building with solar panels and rain-water recycling facilities, just next door to the current Brussels headquarters.

Since 1995, EU leaders, ministers and their delegations meet in a building called "Justus Lipsius", which became too small after the bloc expanded by 12 new members in 2004 and 2007.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

The new edifice, the "Residence Palace", will be functional in 2013, right next door to Justus Lipsius, and takes its name from an old art-deco building that currently houses the International Press Centre. This building will be restored and make up part of the new complex. Built in the 1920, the original Residence Palace was used as headquarters of the German army during the Second World War.

The facade of the new building will be composed of a "patchwork of traditional wood-frame windows from different European countries", suggesting EU's cultural diversity, according to the project description.

Meeting rooms and press areas of more than 6,000 square metres will be combined in an "urn-shaped space", with each floor elyptical in shape and varying in dimension, visible at night through the cubic outer facade.

Solar panels will be installed on the roof and rain water will be recycled. The Residence Palace project will also be the first building site in Belgium to be monitored continuously by auditors with a view to being accorded a "high environmental quality" certification.

The total cost of the project is €315 million, rising from the initial estimated cost of €240 million due to the "impact of the contractual price revision", the project description says.

Within that budget, only the reconstruction work itself has been estimated at €240 million.

Under the agreement between the Belgian state and the Council, land and existing buildings are handed over to the EU institution "for the symbolic price of one euro."

The project was designed by Philippe Samyn & Partners, Studio Valle Progetttazioni and Buro Happolda, a joint venture of architects and engineers, which won the European competition in 2005.

The next step in the building process comes up in October, with the awarding of contracts for the reconstruction work of the old building.

Ukraine slams grain trade restrictions at EU summit

Restrictions on Ukrainian agricultural exports to the EU could translate into military losses in their bid to stop Russia's war, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky warned EU leaders during their summit in Brussels on Thursday.

Difficult talks ahead on financing new EU defence spending

With the war in Ukraine showing no signs of ending any time soon, EU leaders will meet in Brussels on Thursday and Friday (21 and 22 March) to discuss how to boost the defence capabilities of Ukraine and of the bloc itself.

Opinion

Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Rather than assuming a pro-European Labour government in London will automatically open doors in Brussels, the Labour party needs to consider what it may be able to offer to incentivise EU leaders to factor the UK into their defence thinking.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us