European Commission Library

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 Chapel of the Resurrection (French: Chapelle de la Résurrection, Dutch: Verrijzeniskapel) or Chapel for Europe is a Roman Catholic church with an ecumenical vocation located in the heart of the Brussels' European Quarter (City of Brussels municipality), next to the former Convent Van Maerlant. A precursor of this church, which dated back to the 15th century, was situated in the city centre, but demolished in the course of urban development in 1907. Instead, a replica, externally true to the original, was built at its present location. In 2001, after substantial renovation, the church received its present name and took on its present ecumenical character.

The Statue of Europe (also referred to as Unity in Peace) is a sculpture symbolising peace through European integration, while at the same time aiming to demonstrate the motto of the European Union (EU), "United in Diversity". It is located in the garden of Convent Van Maerlant (the library of the European Commission) in the crossroads of the street Van Maerlant and "chaussée d'Etterbeek", in the European Quarter of Brussels, Belgium. Made out of resin, the statue measures more than 5 meters and weighs nearly 800 kg. It was inaugurated on 9 December 2003 by Neil Kinnock and Viviane Reding, who respectively were Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Culture at the time. 2003 was the European Year of People with Disabilities, and the Eastern enlargement of the EU was awaited. The statue was manufactured, modelled, polished, and painted by visually impaired children under the supervision of by French artist Bernard Romain, who wanted to demonstrate that disability was not a disqualifying factor. Tightly entwined, the differently coloured arms symbolise the culturally diverse peoples of Europe, collectively lifting a sphere reminiscent of the EU flag, surmounted by the dove of peace.

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 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.

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 One is a mixed-use high-rise building in the Leopold Quarter district of Brussels, Belgium. Built between 2015 and 2019, the tower stands at 105.2 m (345 ft) tall with 25 floors and is the current twelfth tallest building in Belgium.

The Place Jean Rey (Dutch: Jean Reyplein) is a square in the European Quarter of Brussels, Belgium. It was inaugurated in 2001 and is named after Jean Rey (1902–1983), the second President of the European Commission. The headquarters of some of the major EU institutions are located on or close to this square, including those of the Council and the Parliament.

The Lex building is a high-rise of government offices in the European Quarter of Brussels (Belgium). It is an annex building of the Council of the European Union (its main building is the Europa building) and is located at Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat 145.

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.

Brussels (Belgium) is considered the de facto capital of the European Union, having a long history of hosting a number of principal EU institutions within its European Quarter. The EU has no official capital, and no plans to declare one, but Brussels hosts the official seats of the European Commission, Council of the European Union, and European Council, as well as a seat (officially the second seat but de facto the most important one) of the European Parliament. In 2013, this presence generated about 250 million euros (8.3% of the regional GDP) and 121,000 jobs (16.7% of the regional employment).