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Imperial Brussels
Only joking!
Last week, reports of even greater divisions between Belgium's Dutch and French halves led to fevered speculation that it might be time for the Belgians to call it a day and announce a Czech-Slovakia style "velvet divorce."
Perhaps surprisingly, rumours that Belgium might some day split into two separate nations doesn't seem to worry Eurofanatics that much. Some arch-federalists are reported to speculate that it would be no bad thing. Brussels, as "capital" of the European Union, might then be granted a kind of "District of Columbia" status within Europe - a separate status befitting a federal capital...
...that is, of course, if the northern Belgians would be willing to hand over their largest city and Belgium's (current) capital to the EU. There is little to suggest that they would, and only last week Flemish nationalists formed a chain of bicycles around the city to stress that while it is a largely French-speaking city, it is in Flanders.
However, the reports - if exaggerated - of Belgium's demise came just as the EU revealed plans for a facelift for the European "capital." The revival hopes to remove the European quarter's "soulless" aspect, and replace it with "a truly mixed neighbourhood, bringing together a centre of European and international activity, a diversified residential area and a cultural and recreation centre accessible to all".
The Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas and Minister-President of the Brussels-Capital Region Charles Picqué hope to hold a competition among architects for the facelift.
What would EURSOC readers like to see there?
