{"id":178480,"date":"2025-06-12T13:24:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T13:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/178480\/"},"modified":"2025-06-12T13:24:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T13:24:10","slug":"brussels-city-begs-eu-for-cash-to-finish-schuman-roundabout-works-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/178480\/","title":{"rendered":"Brussels city begs EU for cash to finish Schuman roundabout works \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Renovating the famous roundabout \u2014 the epicenter of the steel and glass buildings housing the EU institutions \u2014 began in fall 2023 and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beliris.be\/projets\/schuman-rond-point.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">was expected to conclude<\/a> in the summer of 2026.\u00a0But a proposed steel canopy in the middle of the square is threatening to blow up costs, leaving the government with a \u20ac3 million gap to fill.<\/p>\n<p>Brussels city is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/brussels-belgium-city-issues-drug-shootings-debt-government-coalition-flemish-french\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">grappling with a gaping hole<\/a> in its budget and severe political paralysis, with government negotiations stuck in limbo since elections in June 2024.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe\u00a0ailing\u00a0budgetary situation\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0Brussels\u00a0Capital\u00a0Region, together with\u00a0the fact that there is\u00a0not yet a\u00a0new Brussels\u00a0Government in\u00a0full power, means that the project\u00a0will\u00a0be\u00a0 compromised if guarantees cannot\u00a0be\u00a0given\u00a0quickly\u00a0regarding the necessary additional financing,\u201d the ministers wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The government hopes EU institutions will fork over the extra cash to approve a tender by June 30. Missing that deadline could entail \u201ceven further additional cost,\u201d the officials warned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCurrently, the Brussels Government finds itself unable to make the necessary commitments to finance the additional costs for the realization of the canopy; a commitment to be made at the latest by 30 June, day on which the current tender must be subscribed to at the latest,\u201d it adds.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Paula Pinho, the European Commission\u2019s chief spokesperson, confirmed that the EU executive received the letter, the contents of which were first reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.standaard.be\/politiek\/armlastig-brussel-smeekt-von-der-leyen-om-geld-voor-heraanleg-schumanplein\/71300067.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Belgian daily De Standaard<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>She added that the Commission hadn\u2019t responded yet.\u00a0Spokespeople for Persoons, Vervoort and Van den Brandt declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Renovating the famous roundabout \u2014 the epicenter of the steel and glass buildings housing the EU institutions \u2014&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[11783,11576,1194,2000,299,5187,2915,2596,31621,5732,1220],"class_list":{"0":"post-178480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-antonio-costa","9":"tag-brussels-bubble","10":"tag-budget","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-europe","13":"tag-european","14":"tag-exclusive","15":"tag-kaja-kallas","16":"tag-roberta-metsola","17":"tag-urban-mobility","18":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}