A new environmentally friendly building with solar panels and rain water recycling facilities is due to be functioning by 2013 for EU ministers and heads of state to meet next door to the current Brussels headquarters.
The current headquarters have become too small to house the ministers and their delegations from all of the EU countries, which led to the 315 million euro project to transform an old art-deco building next door.
According to the project description, the facade of the new building will be composed of a “patchwork of traditional wood-frame windows from different European countries”, suggesting the EU’s cultural diversity.
Solar panels will be installed on the roof and rain water will be recycled.
This will be the first building site in Belgium to be monitored continuously by auditors with a view to being accorded a high environmental quality certification.
