Eurocrats rankle Brussels residents

(BRUSSELS) - Fifty years of the European Union has transformed Brussels from a sleepy backwater to a powerhouse, but the "European quarter" and Eurocrats have not yet been taken to heart by city residents.

The EU's professional immigrants are blamed for driving up rental prices and accused of living in privileged enclaves or damaging the architectural heritage, despite the prestige they have brought the Belgian capital.

For years, Brussels fought it out for the title of European capital with Luxembourg and Strasbourg but now -- as the EU celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the Treaty of Rome on March 25 -- its lofty position is assured.

Summits and most formal meetings of the EU's 27 member countries are held in Brussels and the European Commission, the bloc's administrative arm, bases most of its 19,000 employees here.

Despite the criticism, Brussels has benefited enormously from the EU.

The 54,000 people working at the institutions, and the non-governmental organisations drawn to them -- at least 100,000 people if families are included -- account for 14 percent of Brussels' gross domestic product.

Industry only accounts for eight percent, according to Christian Vandermotten, a professor at the Free University of Brussels and author of a new study on the EU's impact on the city.

"Brussels is only part of the business world because of the EU," he said.

Thanks to the Union, there are airlinks to the world's major destinations. It is also one of Europe's most multi-cultural cities -- almost one in three of its roughly one million residents are not Belgian.

Immigrants from central and eastern European nations -- most of whom joined in the EU in 2004 -- led by Poles and Romanians, now represent 3.8 percent of the population, compared to 0.8 percent six years ago.

Many Brussels residents say they like the diversity, which helps them forget the many quarrels between Belgium's French- and Dutch-speaking communities. But they hate the "European quarter".

Most of the main EU buildings have been built there, contributing to a "Brusselisation" factor; a term from the 1960s used to describe an urban drive that destroyed many picturesque streets and Art Nouveau buildings.

Hundreds of homes, some by the celebrated architects Victor Horta and Henry Van de Velde, were razed in the eastern suburb to make way for buildings like the Commission's Berlaymont headquarters, once the site of a convent.

Pierced by busy avenues, invaded by offices, the district has shown a "vision deficit" since the 1960s, according to Francois Shuiten, who writes comic books with the transformation of Brussels as settings.

It was a problem that led regional authorities to name Marie-Laure Roggemans as "Madame Europe" and task her with reviving the neighbourhood.

EU Administrative Affairs Commissioner Siim Kallas, who works alongside her, has pledged that Europe will erect buildings that are "beautiful", and "symbolise the EU" and "humans".

But to help reconcile the 'Bruxellois' with the EU, Roggemans wants to end the "ghettoisation" of European civil servants, with their own clubs and European schools.

These have become a source of jealousy for the locals, who also accuse the Eurocrats of driving up housing and rental prices.

Local Brussels councillor Michel De Herde has struggled against this phenomenon as he tried to set up "mixed" daycare centres.

"We are going to end up with a sort of caste of European functionaries who have the maximum number of services, while the rest of the population lives in another world," he said.