Economist.com Cities Guide: Brussels Briefing - March 2006

News this month

The lady vanishes

A left-wing Turkish extremist who belonged to a terrorist organisation has escaped house arrest in Brussels, to the chagrin of Belgian officials. Fehriye Erdal, 28, was arrested in Belgium in 1999 and held in Brussels pending trial for her alleged involvement in the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), a group that is banned in the European Union. She is also wanted in Turkey for the 1996 assassination of Ozdemir Sabanci, a leading businessman. She fled custody on February 28th, after a Belgian court sentenced her to four years in prison on charges of possessing firearms and false identity papers, and of ties with DHKP-C. Her escape is a huge embarrassment for Belgium, and an international search is in progress.

On March 5th Belgian officials announced that if Ms Erdal is recaptured she will be extradited to Turkey after serving out her prison sentence. This comes after a long campaign from Turkish officials and the Sabanci family to have her face trial in their country. Belgium's judiciary had been reluctant to extradite Ms Erdal as Turkey still had the death penalty when she was first arrested, but it has since been abolished.

Flying high

Brussels Airport has been ranked the joint-best airport in Europe—sharing first place with Copenhagen—in a survey from Airports Council International (ACI), a trade group. In its quarterly assessment of 66 international airports, ACI put Zurich and Helsinki in third and fourth place among European airports. Some 100,000 passengers were asked to gauge airports on the basis of signage, shopping, dining, parking and transport. Asian airports took the overall honours, with South Korea’s Incheon coming first, Hong Kong International and Singapore Changi sharing second place, and Kuala Lumpur in fourth.

But not everything is rosy at Brussels Airport. For the past six months, a DC-8 plane belonging to Rwanda’s national airline has been grounded there because it did not comply with international safety rules. To improve air safety, European Union countries are, for the first time, about to introduce a blacklist of airlines that will be forbidden from flying into EU airports.

Economic patriotism sweeps Europe

Europe's big energy companies are succumbing to a wave of economic nationalism. Following attempts by Enel, an Italian energy company, to launch a bid for Suez, a French energy giant, Suez announced plans to avert the takeover by merging with its compatriot Gaz de France (GDF), a move that is backed by the French government. The Enel-Suez controversy followed the Spanish government's attempts to protect Endesa, a national electricity giant, against an unwelcome bid from E.ON, a German company. The rash of cross-border EU mergers is widely seen as an attempt by these companies to position themselves ahead of a 2007 deadline for full liberalisation of European energy markets.

Belgium's energy regulator, CREG, has followed the proposed merger of Suez and GDF with dismay, as the combined company would own a good portion of Belgium's energy suppliers. The remnants of Tractebel and Electrabel, both Belgian, were long ago taken over by Suez, and GDF already owns a 25% stake in Suez's competitor, SPE, the second-biggest producer of electricity in Belgium after Electrabel. Out of concern that the French government will have a controlling stake in the merged company and a say over Belgium’s atomic energy plants—owned by Suez—CREG will refer the matter to the EU Commission.

Avian flu

With avian flu now affecting 11 EU countries, the Belgian customs authority has introduced some precautionary measures. Airport officials are intensifying checks on luggage carried by passengers coming from infected regions, such as Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia. They are also on the look-out for meat and poultry products, particularly food from Asia and Turkey, where the H5N1 virus has killed at least 98 people. Since March 1st all domestic, zoo and farm birds in Belgium must be kept indoors, in cages or under nets. In a study released on March 13th, the International Monetary Fund announced that governments are not prepared for a human pandemic of avian flu, and its impact on the world economy could be severe.

The virus has so far been found with birds and other animals in nine EU member states: Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden. Belgium had a scare in early March when a Belgian man fell ill after returning from China. He was put under surveillance by doctors, but tests later proved negative.

No longer off-side

With Germany set to host the World Cup in June in a series of new, state-of-the-art and renovated stadiums, Belgians are casting a more critical eye on their own football venues. The King Baudouin stadium at Heysel, which dates from 1930 and was completely rebuilt and renamed in 1985, no longer meets international safety standards for big events. Guy Vanhengel, budget minister in the Brussels regional government, says it should be demolished to make room for a new, all-purpose venue more suitable for international games.

The stadium—once called Heysel—has never managed to shake off its tragic past. At the northern edge of the city, it hosted the European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus 21 years ago, which ended in disaster when a wall collapsed and 39 Juventus fans died. Though the stadium was completely rebuilt, it has remained unpopular. Meanwhile there is considerable work to be done on football's reputation in Belgium, where allegations of corruption continue.

Catch if you can

March 2006

Museum of Japanese Art

From March 22nd 2006

This spring the new Museum of Japanese Art opens its doors, displaying the state collection of classical Japanese art, mainly from the Edo period (1600-1868). The museum is actually a belated legacy of King Leopold II, who ruled Belgium from 1865 to 1909. He developed a taste for the exotic at the 1900 Paris Universal Exposition, and built the Japanese Tower and the Chinese Pavilion in Brussels soon thereafter. The buildings were designed by Alexandre Marcel, a Parisian architect, and constructed by specialists from Yokohama and Shanghai. Both have housed thematic collections for years. The new museum sits in the once-derelict building between the two—an annex that Leopold intended to be a “restaurant de luxe”.

Museum of Japanese Art, avenue Van Praet 44, 1020 Brussels. Tel: +32 (0)2-268-1608. Open: Tues-Fri 9.30-5pm; Sat & Sun 10am-5pm. See the museum's website.

More from the Brussels cultural calendar