Economist.com Cities Guide: Brussels Briefing - September 2005

News this month

Suez crisis

Belgium was awakened from its summer snooze on August 9th by a bid for Electrabel, a Belgian energy company, from Suez, a French utilities group. The €11.2 billion ($13.7 billion) bid was not a complete surprise: Suez already owns 49.9% of Electrabel, and market observers had long expected the debt-saddled business to seek benefits from Electrabel’s success. (Electrabel is Suez's most valuable asset.) Yet many Belgians see the news as a blow to national pride. Electrabel, Belgium’s third-largest company by market value, seems to be the latest in a series of Belgian companies to succumb to a foreign takeover.

On August 24th, Electrabel's board—half of whom were appointed by Suez—approved the bid by 17 votes to one. But there could be complications. Suez’s chief executive, Gérard Mastrallet, has promised Belgium's prime minister, Guy Verhofstadt, that a new Franco-Belgian company will be created and that shares will be traded in Brussels. Members of Mr Verhofstadt’s coalition government say these promises should be made legally binding.

Beach bummer

It has been a summer of contrasting fortunes for two of Belgium’s better-known beaches. Bruxelles-les-Bains, an artificial beach created in Brussels beside a canal, failed to draw the same crowds as in previous years. Modelled on Paris Plage, the Parisian beach beside the Seine, Brussels's version attracted over 500,000 visitors in 2003, its first year, and 600,000 visitors in 2004. But this year, despite an investment of €500,000, there were fewer than 250,000 visitors. Freddy Thielemans, the mayor of Brussels, blamed the poor weather, noting that in the month the beach was open there were only two days of sunshine. He is considering providing covered areas on the beach next year.

By contrast, a nudist beach established in 2001 at Bredene, on the Belgian coast, has proved so popular that the mayor of that town wants its width extended by 200 metres to 650 metres.

Going off the rails

All is not well at SNCB, Belgium’s national railway company. On August 24th, a strike held by staff at the city’s south station disrupted the morning rush-hour traffic. The employees were protesting against new staffing regulations that take effect in September. SNCB is aiming to reduce staff by 3,000 by the end of the year, but is still launching a campaign to recruit 235 drivers and 129 guards. This muddle over staffing is a result of the SNCB's early-retirement terms, negotiated as part of a restructuring package. The terms are so attractive that management fears it may lose more staff than it can afford to.

Building for Europe

Brussels’s Euroquarter resembles a big building site, as the European Parliament’s base in the city extends to keep pace with the enlargement of the EU. Work on the extension, which encroaches on the neighbouring railway station, is ahead of schedule, but will not finish until next year. Meanwhile, a new building is taking shape on Rue de la Loi, 45 metres from the European Commission’s Berlaymont headquarters. When it is finished at the end of 2006, it will be home to the translation services of the Council of Ministers.

Commercial excess

Away from the buoyant Euroquarter and the city centre, Brussels has a surfeit of commercial property on its outskirts, according to a survey published by De Tijd, a Flemish business newspaper. Despite an economic recovery that started in 2003, rental prices for office space in the outlying eastern suburbs have not picked up. In 2002, the average price was €150 per square metre; now the price in some areas is below €70. Some landlords are offering sweeteners to would-be tenants, such as lengthy, rent-free periods. In one industrial zone near Zaventem, home to the city’s airport, about one-third of office space is unoccupied.

Catch if you can

September 2005

Opera at La Monnaie

From September 1st 2005

Despite a rather subdued start (just seven performances in September and October), the new season at Brussels’s opera house, in a corner of the cobbled Place de la Monnaie, is filled with gems. The season opens with Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte”, followed by the world premiere of “Thyeste”, with music by Jan van Vlijmen, a Dutch composer who died last December, and lyrics by Hugo Claus, a Belgian poet and novelist. Looking further ahead, highlights include new productions of Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman” in December, Mozart’s “Così fan tutte” in January and February, and Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov” in April and May. Book well ahead.

La Monnaie, 4 Place de la Monnaie, Brussels 1000. Tel: +32 70 23 39 39. Visit the theatre's website for further details.

More from the Brussels cultural calendar