EU Commission Building Remains Closed After Fire 08:37, May 20, 2009

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

EU Commission building remains closed after fire 08:37, May 20, 2009 The European Commission building continued to be closed on Tuesday and no date is set for reopening after a fire broke out early Monday afternoon in the building, the commission said. A fire broke out in the Berlaymont building on Monday. The fire alarm sounded and 2,700 employees, including Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, were evacuated immediately. "The Berlaymont building will remain closed today for security and safety reasons. Firefighters have now finished their work, and Commission services are looking to re- establish essential services as soon as possible," a short statement from the commission said. The commission did not give any causes for the blaze nor the date for reopening the building. Sources say that the fire occurred in the basement print room and spread to the top floor via a wiring shaft. The European Commission is one of the three major institutions of the European Union, which also include the European Parliament and the European Council. The Berlaymont building got its name after the Dames du Berlaymont, the convent that occupied its site until 1960. In 1966,the construction of the building started and later it becomes a symbol of the EU presence in Brussels. Renovation work began in the summer of 1995 and the work took 13 years, five years longer than it took to build. The December 1998 handover date was delayed five times. The building was handed over to the EU commission in stages, starting from July 1, 2004 with civil servants moving back just before the start of the Barroso Commission, with their related cabinets and a total of 2,700 civil servants. "Source:Xinhua" .

Copy Link

Recommended publications

Administrative Information
51st meeting of the Implementation Group Brussels, 6th to 8th September 2021 ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to the 51st meeting of the Implementation Group, which will be organised by the European Security and Defence College (ESDC); the first one after the break out of the pandemic, which will take place in Brussels in a purely residential format. GENERAL INFORMATION Upon arrival you will be provided with a meeting folder and the final meeting programme. At the end of the meeting you will be provided with an official Confirmation of stay (for those who need it). The presentations will be available in pdf-format on http://emilyo.eu/node/1191 by the end of the 52nd IG meeting in Sofia. As far as the dress code is concerned, we recommend suit and tie. Active members of the armed forces and the police aren’t obliged to wear their uniforms. The can follow the general rule (suit and tie). PROGRAMME The meeting will be organised in a purely residential format respecting all the COVID-19 restrictions in force. This means that no VTC option is available. Meeting starts on Monday, 6th September 2021 at 16.00 and concludes on Wednesday, 8th September 2021 at 12.30. Tuesday session starts at 09.00 am and concludes at 18.00. Coffee breaks: up to the group Lunch breaks: 1 ½ hours. ACCOMMODATION ESDC doesn’t have any arrangements with hotels in Brussels and we don’t recommend anyone. However, you can find below a list of hotels used by our meetings / courses participants in the past: Silken Berlaymont Hotel First Euroflat Hotel (4 stars) just behind Berlaymont building Hotel Chelton (3 stars, close to ESDC, on Rue Veronesse, the closest) Holiday Inn Brussels Schuman (3 stars, on rue Breydel, close to metro Schuman).
[Show full text]
PROGRAMME Seminar for Trade Unions on the European Commission "Agenda for Jobs, Growth, Fairness and Democratic Change"
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Lirias PROGRAMME Seminar for Trade Unions on the European Commission "Agenda for jobs, growth, fairness and democratic change". Visit number: 405417 Brussels, 29 October (all day) 1 Error! No text of specified style in document. | Vno-P-291778-xx-yy CONFERENCE VENUES Visitors Centre of the European Commission Building "Charlemagne" Rue de la Loi 170 B - 1040 Brussels (Use main entrance – opposite Berlaymont building) Nearest metro station: Schuman (lines 1 and 5; exit "Berlaymont") Coaches can off-load or collect visitors on rue du Taciturne. Kindly note that, in order to avoid traffic congestion, double-parking is strictly prohibited on "rue de la Loi". 405417-EN Visit organiser Name Fabienne Timmermans Visitors Centre DG Communication Address European Commission B-1049 Brussels Tel +32 (0) 2 29 57689 E-mail [email protected] Contact number +32 (0) 2 29 99106 / 67297 assistant Accomodation: First Euroflat Hotel Boulevard Charlemagne 50 1000 Brussels Tel +32 (0) 2 230 00 10 (rooms have been upgraded to garden view) The visit is organized in cooperation with the DG ECFIN: Christian-Yves Krappitz, Communication manager Maxime Bouillard, Communication manager Visitors should ensure that they have their identity cards or passports with them at all times as they will be asked to show them when entering Commission buildings Number of 24 participants Arrival participants and transfer (by own means) to the hotel and/or conference venue Conference
[Show full text]
Brussels, 25.6.2019 SWD(2019) 300 Final COMMISSION STAFF
Europaudvalget 2019 KOM (2019) 0350 Offentligt EUROPEAN COMMISSION Brussels, 25.6.2019 SWD(2019) 300 final COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT Internal audit engagements finalised by the Internal Audit Service in 2018 Accompanying the document Report from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council and the Court of Auditors Annual report to the Discharge Authority on internal audits carried out in 2018 {COM(2019) 350 final} EN EN Table of contents CONTENT OF THIS STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT ............................................................................................................................................4 Section 1 Final reports .....................................................................................................................................................................................................5 HORIZONTAL AUDITS ...........................................................................................................................................................................................................5 1. Audit on LIFE financial instruments: effectiveness and efficiency of the current framework in DGs CLIMA and ENV ...............................................................................................................................................................................................5 2. Limited review on the reporting on the corrective capacity in DGs AGRI, BUDG, DEVCO, EMPL, REGIO, RTD and EASME ..............................................................................................................................................................................................6
[Show full text]
The European Commission, Nationality and Networks
2 THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION, NATIONALITY AND NETWORKS Before going into the theoretical building blocks of studying the networks of European Commission officials, it is necessary to place the central variables of this thesis, nationality and networks, empirically into the organisational con- text of the European Commission. This description of the organisational struc- ture and composition aims to set the stage for the subsequent discussion of why nationality matters in the Commission and how networks may affect pol- icy-making. This portrayal is primarily based on official Commission docu- ments and the existing literature on the Commission. 2.1 The Organisational Structure and Composition of the Commission The term European Commission refers to both the political and administrative branches of this organisation. The political wing is the College of Commission- ers, composed of one Commissioner per Member State – each assigned a policy portfolio for a period of five years. The President of the Commission has the primary responsibility of providing political guidance to the College. The Commissioners are assisted by their Cabinets in performing their tasks. The power of decision-making belongs to this political level of the Commission, whereas the Commission bureaucracy is responsible for preparing, managing and implementing the decisions of the College. The division of power between the political and bureaucratic level of the Commission is, however, not as clear-cut and simple as it seems. This has been a heated issue for debate when Commissioner Günter Verheugen complained of the power of Commission bureaucrats saying that “The Commissioners have to take extreme care that important questions are decided in their weekly 13 CHAPTER 2 meeting and not decided by the civil servants among themselves.”12 Commis- sioner Danita Hübner followed suit by arguing that Commissioners must be careful not to lose grip of things with the influence of the Commission’s civil servants on the rise.
[Show full text]
(Salle Jean Rey). the Berlaymont Is Clearly Visible from the Schuman Roundabout
PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS THE CONFERENCE VENUE (I.E. THE BERLAYMONT), THE HOTEL (I.E. THE SILKEN BERLAYMONT) AND THE RESTAURANT FOR FRIDAY NIGHT (I.E. L'ATELIER) ARE ALL LOCATED CLOSE TO EACH OTHER IN THE SCHUMAN AREA OF BRUSSELS AND WITHIN 5 MINUTES WALKING DISTANCE OF THE SCHUMAN ROUNDABOUT (ROND POINT SCHUMAN / SCHUMANPLEIN) CONFERENCE VENUE : The conference takes place in the European Commission's Berlaymont building (Salle Jean Rey). The Berlaymont is clearly visible from the Schuman roundabout. On the first day of the conference, please bring a copy of the invitation e-mail sent to you, as well as a passport or identity card, in order to meet the security requirements needed to gain entry to the Berlaymont building. Once inside the building, someone will be waiting for you with directions as to how to get to the Jean Rey meeting room where the conference will take place. ADDRESS : 200 Rue de la Loi / Wetstraat – 1000 Brussels HOW TO GET TO THE CONFERENCE VENUE 1 1. From Brussels-National Airport: . Licensed taxis are available outside the Arrivals hall. The fare should cost around €40-€45. Airport line: take the No.12 bus (or No. 21 after 20:00 or on weekends) to “Schuman”, a two-minute walk from the venue. It leaves three times an hour from the Bus Station on the level below Arrivals. The journey should take around 30 minutes and cost €5 if the ticket is bought on board (€3 if bought in advance). Trains leave the station on Level -1 of the airport four times an hour.
[Show full text]
An Hymn to the Bureaucrats in Brussels
A hymn to the bureaucrats in Brussels Who are these EU bureaucrats, the new type of civil servants that we call eurocrats? The author Robert Menasse flew to Brussels, rented an apartment and tried to get to know as many of them as possible. The outcome surprised him. Amongst all monsters, from basilisks to Dracula through to King Kong, civil servants stand out because their imaginary presence is not merely the product of fear and excitement in the bourgeois mind, visions of menace and disaster repeatedly conjured up in order to be able to fantasise about an ultimate lucky escape, but really a fantasy of society as a whole: the image of the civil servant is a projection of all social and professional classes' prejudices. Civil servants are said to be privileged yet as other-worldly as decadent aristocrats; as indolent and pig-headed as the petty bourgeoisie; as rule-obsessed as shop stewards and yet as workshy as any member of the underclass; narrow-minded and yet as sly as foxes (and for whom rules and regulations are Holy Writ); in thinking up nonsense they are as creative as the businessmen who cunningly engineer the needs which they claim to be meeting and, like immigrants, obsessed by the idea of procreating wildly at the taxpayer's expense. It is astonishing how successfully this artefact, this fictional construct haunts the collective imagination without ever falling apart in the light of reality. After all, everybody has actually met a civil servant whereas they haven't met, say, Dracula and, what is more, if you correlate the percentage of civil servants which make up the adult population with the average size of a family, then the statistics dictate that two out of every three people must have a father, uncle, aunt, sister, father-in-law or at least one close relation working in the civil service.
[Show full text]
Energy Certification of Berlaymont
Energy Certification of Berlaymont Summary Report on project results July 2005 The Berlaymont Building The Berlaymont was built in the 1960s to house the headquarters of the European Commission. The building was originally designed by architect Lucien de Vestel, in cooperation with fellow architects Jean Gilson and André Polak. They created an imposing, cross-shaped building, with a central hub and four wings of different sizes radiating out from it. It is a large building, containing over 240 000 m2 of floor space on 16 levels. The structure was so technologically advanced for its time as to be considered revolutionary: the superstructure was suspended by steel braces from preflex prestressed beams resting on a reinforced concrete core. The Berlaymont complex provided office space for 3 000 Commission staff and also contained rooms for meetings and conferences, a cafeteria, a restaurant, TV studios, shops, store-rooms and parking space for some 1 600 cars. A number of underground connections linked the building to nearby road tunnels, the metro and the railway station. The first European civil servants moved in 1967 and the building was occupied until 1991. Over time, the building and its fittings came to show their age and no longer met the occupants’ requirements. By 1991, it became clear that major works were needed to remove the large quantities of asbestos that were present in the building and the decision was made to go ahead with a full-scale renovation aiming at: • Creating a sober and functional building that projects an image
[Show full text]
Elena Kaliberda, M.A. (EURUS)
Narrative Report Graduate Travel-Research Fellowships on the European Union, European Integration or EU-Canada Relations 2014 Elena Kaliberda M.A. Student, Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada With the generous help of the Graduate Travel-Research Fellowship on the European Union, I was able to complete my field work in Brussels (Belgium), Paris and Lyon (France) in the period from May 24th until June 2nd, 2014. The goal of my research project is to examine the role of two media networks with European agenda in the development of the European public sphere (EURANET radio network and Euronews television). As a result of the field trip, I conducted eleven research interviews with representatives of two transnational media networks with European agenda - EURANET and Euronews, the European Commission, journalists of European media. Being in Brussels, Paris and Lyon also allowed me to attend and to participate in routine activities of editorial offices of EURANET and Euronews. I attended: RTBF broadcasting corporation – member of EURANET network in Belgium, Brussels; EURANET Plus News Agency in Brussels; EURANET and Euronews studios in the European Parliament on the Elections Night; EURANET Plus headquarter in Paris; Euronews headquarter in Lyon/Ecully. I spent one working day in the Euronews’ News Room and took part in the morning briefing of news brigade. On May 25-26 in Brussels, I got a valuable and unique experience attending the Elections Night in the European Parliament and taking part in the Mondays’ press-conference of the European Commission in Berlaymont building press-centre. I could get the first-hand information on the results of the European Parliament Elections 2014 and understanding of the process of releasing information by the EU institutions to European media.
[Show full text]
Introduction
1 INTRODUCTION 2 3 INTRODUCTION "Civil Protection in a Changing Risk Landscape" The European Civil Protection Forum is the largest recurring public event on European cooperation in the field of civil protection. Since 2003, the conference has brought together the European civil protection community to take stock of achievements, share lessons learnt, and put forward new ideas for tackling common challenges. The conference is also an important tool for strengthening cooperation with Europe’s Neighbourhood and other international partners. Hosted by the European Commission in Brussels, over the past fifteen years “the Forum” has been at the heart of the European policy discussion on civil protection and plugged into the international consensus on disaster risk management and resilience. The 2018 edition takes place at a particularly critical time for reflecting collectively on the current and future role of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM), the European framework for cooperation among civil protection authorities. At the end of 2017, the European Commission adopted a new legislative proposal, currently being discussed with the Council and the European Parliament, with a view to strengthen the UCPM by boosting financial support to the existing voluntary pool, by establishing a dedicated reserve of operational capacities at Union level (rescEU) as well as reinforced preparedness and prevention measures. INTRODUCTION 4 The objectives of the European Civil Protection Forum 2018 are to: (i) provide a platform for discussion with stakeholders on pressing policy questions which are likely to shape the future development of the UCPM (ii) serve as a sounding board for new ideas and developments in the sphere of civil protection and disaster risk management, including cooperation at EU level and with neighbouring countries beyond 2020 (iii) facilitate networking, mutual learning and cooperation within the European civil protection community.
[Show full text]
Wilfried Loth Building Europe
Wilfried Loth Building Europe Wilfried Loth Building Europe A History of European Unification Translated by Robert F. Hogg An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libra- ries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access. More information about the initiative can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. ISBN 978-3-11-042777-6 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-042481-2 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-042488-1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2015 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Cover image rights: ©UE/Christian Lambiotte Typesetting: Michael Peschke, Berlin Printing: CPI books GmbH, Leck ♾ Printed on acid free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Table of Contents Abbreviations vii Prologue: Churchill’s Congress 1 Four Driving Forces 1 The Struggle for the Congress 8 Negotiations and Decisions 13 A Milestone 18 1 Foundation Years, 1948–1957 20 The Struggle over the Council of Europe 20 The Emergence of the Coal and Steel Community
[Show full text]
755 Final COMMUNICATION from the COMMISSION on BUILDINGS P
COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES Brussels, 10.12.2003 COM(2003) 755 final COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION ON BUILDINGS POLICY AND INFRASTRUCTURES IN BRUSSELS EN EN CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................ 3 2. PRINCIPLES FOR ACTION ...................................................................................... 5 2.1. Integrating the Commission’s buildings into the urban fabric..................................... 5 2.1.1. Diversifying activities in the European Quarter........................................................... 5 2.1.2. Developing Europe’s image......................................................................................... 5 2.1.3. Defining the urban planning framework...................................................................... 6 2.2. Improving the accessibility and quality of Commission buildings.............................. 7 2.2.1. The accessibility of buildings....................................................................................... 7 2.2.2. Building quality............................................................................................................ 8 2.3. A policy of mobility..................................................................................................... 8 2.3.1. Journeys between the various Commission buildings ................................................. 9 2.3.2. Journeys to the workplace.........................................................................................
[Show full text]
Fusion Research – an Energy Option for Europe's Future
FFUUSSIIOONN RREESSEEAARRCCHH AnAn EnerEnergygy OptionOption forfor EurEurope’ope’ss FuturFuturee GENERAL INFORMATION EURATOM Interested in European research? RTD info is our quarterly magazine keeping you in touch with main developments (results, programmes, events, etc.). It is available in English, French and German. A free sample copy or free subscription can be obtained from: European Commission Directorate-General for Research Information and Communication Unit B-1049 Brussels Fax (32-2) 29-58220 E-mail: [email protected] Internet: http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/rtdinfo/index_en.html EUROPEAN COMMISSION Directorate-General for Research Directorate J - Energy Unit J4 Fusion Association Agreements Contact: Rosa Antidormi European Commission Office CDMA 05/031 B-1049 Brussels Tel. (32-2) 29-98899 Fax (32-2) 29-64252 E-mail: [email protected] EUROPEAN COMMISSION FFUUSSIIOONN RREESSEEAARRCCHH AnAn EnerEnergygy OptionOption forfor EurEurope’ope’ss FuturFuturee Directorate-General for Research 2007 Fusion energy research Europe Direct is a service to help you find answers to your questions about the European Union New freephone number: 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11 A great deal of additional information on the European Union is available on the Internet. It can be accessed through the Europa server (http://europa.eu). Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2007 ISBN 92-79-00513-8 © European Communities, 2007 Reproduction is authorised
[Show full text]