The Breydel building is an office block in the European Quarter of

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, Belgium, which served as a temporary headquarters for the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

between 1991 and 2004. It is named after Jan Breydel, a legendary

Flemish Flemish may refer to: * Flemish, adjective for Flanders, Belgium * Flemish region, one of the three regions of Belgium *Flemish Community, one of the three constitutionally defined language communities of Belgium * Flemish dialects, a Dutch dialec ...

leader known from the

Battle of the Golden Spurs The Battle of the Golden Spurs (; ) or 1302 Battle of Courtrai was a military confrontation between the royal army of Kingdom of France, France and rebellious forces of the County of Flanders on 11 July 1302 during the 1297–1305 Franco-Flem ...

History

The seat of the

, the symbolic

Berlaymont building The Berlaymont building () is an office building in Brussels, Belgium, which houses the headquarters of the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union (EU). The structure is located on the Robert Schuman Roundabout at 200, ...

, was in dire need of renovation due to the discovery of

asbestos Asbestos ( ) is a group of naturally occurring, Toxicity, toxic, carcinogenic and fibrous silicate minerals. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous Crystal habit, crystals, each fibre (particulate with length su ...

in its construction. A new building was rapidly needed to house the

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

and his college of

Commissioners A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a Wiktionary: commission, commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissi ...

, as the issue of the location of European Union institutions was being discussed and any delays could lead to the Commission withdrawing from the city. Plans for the building were already being prepared by the bank BACOB due to the rapidly expanding needs of the Commission, though the entire block would be needed to house the 1,300 civil servants and auxiliary services. Foreseeing this, developers had bought a block of houses each on the area to ensure they all received a slice of the pie when the land was bought up. The main building was ready just in time for the transfer of Commission staff at the end of 1991, and expansion continued through the 1990s. The President and most of the Commission moved back to the Berlaymont when renovation was completed in 2004. However, the Commission has bought the building when it moved in (one of the first times it bought a building rather than rented it) and it is still a Commission building today, housing the Directorate-General for the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs and the

Directorate-General for Budget The Directorate-General for Budget (DG BUDG) is a Directorate-General of the European Commission. The task of the Directorate-General for Budget is to secure from the budgetary authority - the European Parliament and the Council of the European Un ...

. The building was designed by André and Jean Polak, who had also designed the Berlaymont, together with Marc Vanden Bossche and Johan Van Dessel. It took just 23 months to build.

References

*
List and maps of Commission buildings in Brussels
Office for Infrastructures and Logistics - Brussels (European Commission). Accessed 2008-08-26. {{Eu-directorates-general Buildings and structures in Brussels European Commission European quarter of Brussels Buildings and structures of the European Union Office buildings in Belgium

History

See also

References