RSS

The Dark Side of Brussels

Jean-Pierre Stroobants, Le Monde (in French) | March 3, 2009

Behind its image of Eurocapital, seducing people from all over the globe, Brussels is in many ways comparable to a city of a developing country. ++ Dirty, bad economic conditions; 35% of the people aged under 25 are unemployed and this number rises significantly for foreigners. ++ According to Eurostat only three regions rank worse on the European continent ++ But who can help Brussels? ++ The regional power is weak whilst the federal one is not interested in the capital, except of course, for using it as a label abroad.

Tue, Mar 3rd 2009, 20:14

Daniel Michael Pople, Student, (2)

• 1
•  
•  
• 
• 

I like this comment! What's this?

I think Brussels is really a victim of its own hype. Brussels is now almost certainly perceived more as the capital of the EU than Belgium, and it would certainly appear that, domestically at least, the people of Brussels are suffering as a result. The EU is almost definately the most important thing ever to happen to Belgium and the responsibility this has brought appears to have sapped resources away from domestic issues in Belgium's capital. A word of warning: perhaps, as the EU continues to strengthen, as appears to be the case, a modernised, fully-functioning EU will require to relocate to a place more reflective of the prosperity which it so aims to promote.

Commenting has been deactivated in the archive. We appreciate your comments on our more recent articles at atlantic-community.org