Birth of the European Communities In 1951, the leaders of six European countries (Belgium,
Luxembourg,
Netherlands,
France,
Italy and
West Germany) signed the
Treaty of Paris, which created the
European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), and with this new community came the first institutions: the
High Authority,
Council of Ministers,
Court of Justice and
Common Assembly. A number of cities were considered, and Brussels would have been accepted as a compromise, but the
Belgian government put all its effort into backing
Liège (
Wallonia), opposed by all the other members, and was unable to formally back Brussels due to internal instability. Agreement remained elusive and a seat had to be found before the institutions could begin work, hence
Luxembourg was chosen as a provisional seat, though with the Common Assembly in
Strasbourg as that was the only city with a large enough
hemicycle (the one used by the
Council of Europe). This agreement was temporary, and plans were set to relocate the institutions to
Saarbrücken (Germany), which would serve as a "European District", but this did not occur. The 1957
Treaty of Rome established two new communities: the
European Economic Community (EEC) and the
European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom). These shared the Assembly and Court of the ECSC but created two new sets of Councils and Commissions (equivalent to the ECSC's High Authority). Discussions on the seats of the institutions were left until the last moment before the treaties came into force, so as not to interfere with
ratification. Brussels waited until only a month before talks to enter its application, which received unofficial backing by several
member states. The members agreed in principle to locate the executives, Councils, and the assembly in one city, though could still not decide which city, so they put the decision off for six months. In the meantime, the Assembly would stay in Strasbourg and the new Commissions would meet alternatively at the ECSC seat and at the
Château of Val Duchesse, in Brussels (headquarters of a temporary committee). The Councils would meet wherever their
Presidents wanted to. In practice, this was at Val Duchesse until autumn 1958 when it moved to central Brussels, at 2, /.
Installation in Brussels and early development Brussels missed out in its bid for a single seat due to a weak campaign from the Belgian government in negotiations. The government eventually pushed its campaign and started large-scale construction, renting office space in the east of the city for use by the institutions. On 11 February 1958,
the six member states' governments concluded an unofficial agreement on the setting-up of community offices. On the principle that it would take two years after a final agreement to prepare the appropriate office space, full services were set up in Brussels in expectation of a report from the Committee of Experts looking into the matter of a final seat. From 1958, the Commissions' services were grouped together on the /, a complex which was built in several phases from 1957 to 1963. While waiting for this building's completion, the European administration moved to 51–53,
rue Belliard/Belliardstraat on 1 April 1958 (later exclusively used by the Euratom Commission), though with the numbers of
European civil servants rapidly expanding, services were set up in buildings on the /, the /, the
Avenue de Tervueren/Tervurenlaan, the /, the /, the
Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat and the /. The Belgian government further provided newly built offices on the
Mont des Arts/Kunstberg (22, /) for the Council of Ministers' Secretariat and
European Investment Bank. A Committee of Experts deemed Brussels to be the one option to have all the necessary features for a European capital: a large, active metropolis, without a
congested centre or poor quality of housing; good communications with other member states' capitals, including to major commercial and maritime markets; vast internal transport links; an important international business centre; plentiful housing for European civil servants; and an open economy. Furthermore, it was located halfway between France, Germany and the United Kingdom (as in the case of other seats of European institutions), and on the border between the two major European civilisations:
Latin and
Germanic; and was at the centre of the first post-war integration experiment: the
Benelux. As a capital of a small country, it also could not claim to use the presence of institutions to exert pressure on other member states, it being more of a neutral territory between the major European powers. The committee's report was approved of by the Council, Parliament and Commissions, however, the Council was still unable to achieve a final vote on the issue, and hence put off the issue for a further three years, despite all the institutions now leading in moving to Brussels. The decision was put off due to the varied national positions preventing a unanimous decision. Luxembourg fought to keep the ECSC or have compensation; France fought for Strasbourg; Italy, initially backing Paris, fought for any Italian city to thwart Luxembourg and Strasbourg. Meanwhile, the Parliament passed a series of resolutions complaining about the whole situation of spreading itself across three cities, though unable to do anything about it.
Merger Treaty: political and town-planning status quo (before renovation), headquarters of the
Council of the European Union between 1971 and 1995 The 1965
Merger Treaty was seen as an appropriate moment to finally resolve the issue; the separate Commissions and Councils were to be merged. Luxembourg, concerned about losing the High Authority, proposed a split between Brussels and Luxembourg. The Commission and Council were to be located in Brussels, with Luxembourg keeping the Court and Parliamentary Assembly, together with a few of the Commission's departments. This was largely welcomed by the member states, but opposed by France, not wishing to see the Parliament leave Strasbourg, and by the Parliament itself, which wished to be with the executives and was further annoyed by the fact that it was not consulted on the matter of its own location. Hence, the
status quo was maintained with some adjustments; the Commission, with most of its departments, would be in Brussels; as would the Council, except for April, June and October, when it would meet in Luxembourg. In addition, Luxembourg would keep the Court of Justice, some of the Commission's departments and the
Secretariat of the European Parliament. Strasbourg would continue to host the Parliament. Joining the Commission was the merged Council's Secretariat. The ECSC's Secretariat merged with the EEC's and EAEC's in the Ravenstein building, which then moved to the
Charlemagne building, next to the
Berlaymont building, in 1971. Yet, despite the agreement to host these institutions in Brussels, its formal status was still unclear, and hence the city sought to strengthen its hand with major investment in buildings and infrastructure (including
Schuman metro station). However, these initial developments were sporadic with little
town planning and based on speculation (see
Brusselisation). In 1983, it went further by symbolically holding a plenary session in Brussels, in the basement of the Mont des Arts Congress Centre. However, the meeting was a fiasco and the poor facilities partly discredited Brussels' aim of being the sole seat of the institutions. Things looked up for Brussels when, in 1985, the Parliament gained its own
plenary chamber in the city (on the /) for some of its part-sessions.
Edinburgh European Council compromise served as the
European Commission's headquarters while the
Berlaymont was renovated. In response the
Edinburgh European Council of 1992, the EU adopted a final agreement on the location of its institutions. According to this decision, which was subsequently annexed to the
Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997, Shortly before this summit, the Commission moved into the
Breydel building, at 45, /. This was due to
asbestos being discovered in the Berlaymont, forcing its evacuation in 1989. The Commission threatened to move out of the city altogether, which would have destroyed Brussels's chances of hosting the Parliament, so the Belgian government stepped in to build the Breydel building a short distance from the Berlaymont, in only 23 months, ensuring the Commission could move in before the Edinburgh Summit. Shortly after Edinburgh, the Parliament bought its new building in Brussels. With the status of Brussels now clear,
NGOs,
lobbyists, advisory bodies and regional offices started basing themselves in the quarter near the institutions. ==Status==