Brussels State Secretary After « humiliating » request: « Europe itself is a requesting party for redesigning Schumanplein » (Brussels)
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The European institutions themselves are asking for the redesign of Schumanplein into a meeting place with a canopy. The project was designed in consultation with them. That has declared resigning Brussels State Secretary for Urban Building Ans Persoons (Vooruit) on Friday in the Brussels Parliament.
On Thursday it was announced that the Brussels government asked the European institutions for money for the reconstruction of Schumanplein. Persoons received questions about this from various MPs about this on Friday. She said that Prime Minister Bart De Wever (N-VA) uses the letter to the EU institutions, with whom the Brussels government has a very good relationship, « to place Brussels in a bad light ».
De Wever said on Thursday that he had called the leaders of the European Institutions, including European Commission Chairman Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa, to say that they had to ignore the letter. He spoke of a « new low point » and laughed that Brussels « makes us to beg us by beg money ».
Read too. De Wever: « Begeling letter Brussels government makes land in disgrace »
Persoons, who took the floor in the name of the resigning government, reminded the MPs that the transformation of the Schumanrotonde in a meeting place in 2015 was placed on the table by a Belgian architectural firm, in accordance with the wishes of the European institutions.
The canopy, for which the tender must be completed by the end of this month, was seen as an important factor « to provide shelter for the meeting place between different neighborhoods ». Beliris, which manages the yard, had informed the Brussels government of extra costs in February. « In current affairs and confronted with a non -ideal budgetary situation, we went looking for creative solutions, » said Persoons.
The Vervoort government has therefore asked Federal Minister for Beliris, Bernard Quintin (MR), whether it was not possible to use resources that were not spent in the context of amendment 15 in the cooperation agreement between the federal state and the Brussels Region. However, the federal minister had announced that the new cooperation committee was not yet founded by the new government, according to Persoons.
The second option was a letter to the European Commission to find a creative solution. « We have already had this kind of contact in the past because the European institutions had expressed the wish to be present in the neighborhood. »
« De Wever must be the prime minister of everyone. It is a bit of a Belgian game to humiliate Brussels. That may work well in Flanders, but is harmful to our region, » Persoons still regretted.
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© RR
