In the early night hours of Tuesday I took a stroll through the European Quarter and neighboring areas. I would not have any time available in the next two days, so I wanted to see at least a little of Brussels and the night stroll was the only option.
The European Quarter is an unofficial name for the area of Brussels where the European Commission, Council of the EU, the European Parliament, and most of the other European institutions are located.
The Council of the European Union resides primarily in two buildings: The Justus Lipsius building and the Lex building. Both are located in the heart of the European Quarter on the Rue de la Roi. The Justus Lipsius building is the primary meeting place of the Council and you can see it on the next few pictures. It's much larger than what can be seen here though - the pictures only show its one wing. From the sign on the main entrance, you can also tell which country is currently presiding the Council of the European Union.
The letters on the door aren't the only sign of the Czech presidency; I even saw a row of flags - EU, Czech, Belgian, and EU again. But that was it - there was no more visible advertising of the Czech Republic (though I have to admit I only saw a small part of the European Quarter).
The Justus Lipsius also houses the ironic Entropa sculpture that was created to mark the occasion of the Czech presidency. I was not able to take any good pictures unfortunately; getting to the sculpture (or anywhere else into the Justus Lipsius building) would require going to the building during the day and passing through a security check, which would be too much of a hassle given the tight schedule that I was on on Wednesday and Thursday.
The Lex building is only a few years old and it's located next to the Justus Lipsius building. You can see it on the next few pictures.
The headquarters of the European Commission is in the Berlaymont building, located on Rue de la Roi opposite to the Justus Lipsius building. Mr. Barroso, the president of the European Commission, and his cabinet have offices in this building as well. The building has a unique shape - it looks like a four-winged cross from the birds' perspective. I don't have wings (well not yet anyway), so I was only able to take a few pictures from the ground.
There's no doubt that this building is located in Brussels in the heart of the European district: the flags around it are proving that.
The European Commission is also housed in the Charlemagne building, which stands next to Berlaymont. The Charlemagne building has three wings and you can see it on the next row of pictures.
My stroll through Brussels ends at the Charlemagne building - which is also where the Summit itself began on the Wednesday morning. The billboards in the European quarter made it clear what the primary concern of the Summit would be, as you can see on the pictures.
Copyright notice: Text and images copyright by Michal Řeháček.