Charlemagne building

The Charlemagne seen on the left from the Maelbeek garden (on the right the Lex building opposite it )

The Charlemagne building is a skyscraper in the European Quarter in Brussels . It is the seat of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Trade and the European Commission's Directorate-General for Enlargement.

The building has three wings and 15 floors , including three conference rooms. It is located on Wetstraat / Rue de la Loi in the city of Brussels , one of the 19 municipalities in the Brussels-Capital Region . While the postcode of the municipality is 1000, the European Commission has a postcode 1049 specially reserved for them.

history

The building was designed by Jacques Cuisinier and built in 1967 at the same time as the Berlaymont building to bring together the somewhat dispersed departments of the Commission. In 1971, after refusing to share the Berlaymont with the Council of the European Union , the Charlemagne was turned over to the Council's Secretariat. This was previously located in the center of the city.

The Council of the European Union moved to the Justus Lipsius building in 1995 . This enabled the renovation of the Charlemagne , which was then completed in 1998. Helmut Jahn replaced the outer concrete facade elements with modern glass surfaces. After the restoration, the commission moved back into the building. Other offices of the European Union are grouped around the Schumann roundabout.

For a while, it was also discussed as the future headquarters for the European External Action Service , which was founded in 2010. The idea was dropped for image reasons. They wanted the new European External Action Service to be perceived as an independent body outside the Commission and not as an appendage to the Lex 2000 company, which built and owns the opposite, architecturally similar Lex building .