Espace Léopold

The Museum of Natural Sciences of Belgium (French: Muséum des sciences naturelles de Belgique, Dutch: Museum voor Natuurwetenschappen van België) is a museum dedicated to natural history, located in Brussels, Belgium. The museum is a part of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. Its most important pieces are 30 fossilised Iguanodon skeletons, which were discovered in 1878 in Bernissart, Belgium. The dinosaur hall of the museum is the world's largest museum hall completely dedicated to dinosaurs. Another famous piece is the Ishango bone, which was discovered in 1960 by Jean de Heinzelin de Braucourt in the Belgian Congo. The museum also houses a research department and a public exhibit department.

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) is a consultative body of the European Union (EU) established in 1958. It is an advisory assembly composed of "social partners", namely: employers (employers' organisations), employees (trade unions) and representatives of various other interests. Its seat, which it shares with the Committee of the Regions, is the Jacques Delors building on Belliardstraat / Rue Belliard 99 in Brussels. Once known by the acronym "EcoSoc", the body is now referred to as the "EESC", to avoid confusions with the United Nations ECOSOC.

Brussels-Luxembourg railway station (Dutch: Station Brussel-Luxemburg, French: Gare de Bruxelles-Luxembourg) is a station in the European Quarter of Brussels under the Esplanade of the European Parliament (part of the European Parliament complex in Brussels).

The Esplanade of the European Parliament, or simply the mall, with its most representative part Solidarność 1980 Esplanade, (French: L'esplanade du Parlement européen, or le mail, Dutch: Esplanade van het Europees Parlement) is a pedestrian mall in Brussels (Belgium), completed in 2002.

The Jacques Delors building, at 99-101 rue Belliard in the European Quarter of Brussels, houses the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. It sits between the Rue Belliard (Belliardstraat) and Leopold Park and was formerly called the Belliard building. It housed the Brussels activities of the European Parliament until the 1990s, when these functions were moved to the new Espace Léopold. In the 2000s, the building was renovated for use by the two Committees. In 2006, it was renamed "Jacques Delors" (abbreviated 'JDE'), after Jacques Delors, former President of the European Commission, who was the most prominent founder of the Committee of the Regions.

The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) is the European Union's (EU) assembly of local and regional representatives that provides sub-national authorities (i.e. regions, counties, provinces, municipalities and cities) with a direct voice within the EU's institutional framework. Established in 1994, the CoR was set up to address two main issues. First, about three quarters of EU legislation is implemented at local or regional level, so local and regional representatives needed to have a say in the development of new EU laws. Second, there were concerns about a widening gap between the public and the process of European integration; involving the elected level of government closest to the citizens was one way of closing the gap.

The Rue Belliard (French) or Belliardstraat (Dutch) is a major street in Brussels, Belgium, running parallel to the Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat. Both are one-way streets; where traffic in the Rue de la Loi runs in the western direction towards Brussels' city centre, the Rue Belliard runs in the eastern direction, away from the city centre. The street runs from the east of the Small Ring to the south-western corner of the Parc du Cinquantenaire/Jubelpark. The street has four lanes from the Small Ring to the start of the Belliard tunnel, two lanes along Leopold Park and ends on one lane up to the Cinquantenaire. The section on one lane from one park to the other is partly in the territory of the municipality of Etterbeek. The rest of the street is in the territory of the City of Brussels. The Rue Belliard is named after Augustin Daniel Belliard, a French general who was governor of the department of the Dyle.

The ISPD Protocol & Diplomacy (founded 2008 as The International School of Protocol and Diplomacy) is part of the ISPD Group and an academic institution solely dedicated to research, education, training and consultancy in International Protocol, Soft Diplomacy, Business Protocol, Etiquette, Official Events, Cross-Cultural Intelligence, Strategic Communication and Corporate Diplomacy. As the word “School” is not summarising properly all ISPD related activities the wording was changed and the group does not use the word “School” anymore. The ISPD combines fields like Protocol, Diplomacy, Soft Diplomatic Skills, Security, Corporate Diplomacy, etc. in order to bring clients and course participants a unique range of study programmes designed and developed by academics from multicultural and interdisciplinary backgrounds. Although born in Brussels, Belgium, the ISPD has representative offices worldwide. Since the inception in 2008, the ISPD Protocol & Diplomacy has trained over 1200 professionals, including ambassadors, chiefs of protocol and embassy personnel across 104 countries. In addition, the ISPD Protocol & Diplomacy works with more than 60 internationally known experts like the Former Minister for Foreign Affairs of Austria Dr Karin Kneissl; H.E. Dr Luis Ritto former EU Ambassador to the Holy See, Order of Malta, FAO; Captain José Paulo Lucena, Head of Security, Safety and Environment Department at the Portuguese Navy General Inspection; Thomas Sladko, former Deputy Head of Protocol of the Austrian Federal Chancellery; Vazil Hudák, Vice President of the European Investment Bank; Pierre Jirikoff, Senior Advisor of Protocol at the Chamber of Representatives of Belgium; Baron Jacques de Cattier d'Yves, former Protocol Director of the Ministry of Defense; Phillipa Lawrence, former Chief of Protocol of the UN, among many others. ISPD's primary language of instruction is English, but it also provides lectures on other languages on demand. Its method of teaching is based on both face2face training and online learning platform for students in distant parts of the world.

The Convent Van Maerlant is a former convent which consists of a church and the Chapel of the Resurrection on Rue Van Maerlant/Van Maerlantstraat in Brussels, Belgium. Jacob van Maerlant was a famous medieval Flemish poet. The original chapel was built in 1435 in the authority of a Papal Bull, and was renovated in the 1780s. The convent of the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration itself was converted from a Ducal town house in the early 1850s. In 1905, a compulsory purchase order for land for Brussels Central Station was made on Rue des Sols/Stuiversstraat, and this included the convent. As a result, a virtually identical chapel was built, which survived for another 45 years, only finally being demolished in 1955. Falling vocations meant the convent was closed in the early 1980s, and after standing derelict for nearly 20 years, it was acquired to become the central library of the European Commission. This is the only pre-WW2 building to be left standing in the area after the entry of European institutions.

The Monument to John Cockerill (French: Monument à John Cockerill, Dutch: Monument John Cockerill) is a monument erected in Brussels, Belgium, in memory of the Belgian-British industrialist John Cockerill, a pioneer of the steel industry and the railways in Belgium in the 19th century. The monumental group was designed in 1872 by the sculptor Armand Cattier in eclectic style. It stands in the centre of Place du Luxembourg/Luxemburgplein in Ixelles, with its back to the former Brussels-Luxembourg railway station's entrance and to the postmodern buildings of the Espace Léopold, seat of the European Parliament in Brussels.

The Maelbeek or Maalbeek (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈmaːlbeːk]) is a stream that runs through several municipalities in Brussels, including Etterbeek, Ixelles, Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Schaerbeek. It is a tributary of the Zenne, which it joins up in Schaerbeek, from its source located to the south near the Abbey of La Cambre. The name Maalbeek, (meaning mill brook), comes from the Dutch words beek (meaning brook) and maal (meaning to mill). Molenbeek has a similar derivation. It was vaulted in 1872, at which time there were 58 ponds along the stream. Nowadays, only six are left: the ponds of the Abbey of La Cambre; of Ixelles (two); of Leopold Park; of Marie-Louise Square; and of Josaphat Park. The Maelbeek/Maalbeek metro station is located in the central area of this Maalbeek valley. There is another stream in the vicinity named Maalbeek, also a tributary to the Zenne, in Grimbergen and two other streams named Molenbeek, found in Beersel and in Laeken. The Woluwe river also has a tributary named Kleine (little) Maalbeek, in Kraainem.

The Place du Luxembourg (French) or Luxemburgplein (Dutch), meaning "Luxembourg Square", is a square in the European Quarter of Brussels, Belgium. It is better known by local European bureaucrats and journalists by one of its nicknames, Place Lux or Plux.The square is mostly located in the City of Brussels with a small part in the municipality of Ixelles, between the Rue d'Arlon/Aarlenstraat and the Rue de Trèves/Trierstraat. In its centre stands statue of John Cockerill. It is also flanked by the European Parliament, as well as some of the main European Institutions in the city. It is served by Brussels-Luxembourg railway station.