Verwijdering asbest uit hoofdgebouw Europese Commissie na 10 jaar nog niet afgerond (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The Berlaymont building, the Commission's former headquarters, will not meet its end of year deadline for the completion of its refurbishment works.

The Commission evacuated the star shaped building in 1991 after it was found to be riddled with asbestos.

The Berlaymont should have been ready to open in January 2000 and it refurbishment cost millions of euro.

Commission Vice-President Neil Kinnock however admitted yesterday that the works on the building will not meet the 31 December deadline, and warned that the Belgian authorities risk incurring financial penalties if the deadlines are not met.

As from 1 January 2004, the Commission will stop paying the rent for its alternative allocations.

Moreover, if certain meeting rooms in the Berlaymont are not ready by the end of March, from 1 April, the Belgian authorities will incur 221,000 euro fee every month until the work is completed. This will be topped by an additional 221,000 from 1 July if the audiovisual rooms are not completed by the end of June.

"We will only accept occupation if the work has been brought to a good standard of completion", Neil Kinnock warned.

The Commission is buying the building from the Belgian government for 553 million euro, which it will start paying from 2005.

Mr Kinnock also said that after the Berlaymont purchase, the Commission intends to purchase more buildings for its use.

More office space will also be needed due to the increase in staff after next May's EU enlargement.

Commission demands a say over the European Quarter

The European Institutions occupy around 45% of all office space in the European Quarter in Brussels.

The Commission said that development of this area has suffered from a lack of planning and that transport problems have been aggravated.

To improve the situation, the Commission today adopted its own buildings strategy, aimed "to improve the quality of its presence in Brussels".

Amongst its proposals is to make the ground floor of some Commission buildings available for commercial activities and to design its buildings to permit easy access by disabled staff and visitors.

The Commission also wants to increase its capacity to influence the architectural design of buildings through international competitions and become more involved in the general urban planning of the European Quarter.

The EU executive called on the Belgian authorities to appoint a single counterpart with whom the European Institutions could develop a partnership on all issues related to the development of this area.

"The EU institutions never had influence on the development of the European Quarter. We think that should change", Commission vice-president Kinnock said.