The capital of Europe

Given its status as the capital of Europe, you’d expect every kind of business to take place in Brussels. And it does. Multi-national companies are moving in all the time and, given that Belgium is a land of few natural resources, the opportunities for exporters here are legion. Professional lobbyists form a large part of the international community, putting politicians under pressure to make decisions that don’t harm businesses (large or small).

Businessmen and women meet in Brussels to discuss everything from energy to transport and from fish to legislation governing the brewing of real ale. This thrusting and energetic business community is diverse, flexible and changes almost daily as people flood in and out of this hub of trade-related matters.

Despite all the hand-shaking, cheek-kissing and shared information, things don’t always work smoothly, of course. Recent rows have flared over the EU’s sugar policy, the REACH directive on the assessment of chemical safety and intellectual copyright laws with regard to software patenting. There are, of course, two sides to every story and both sides employ the lobbyists to battle on their behalf.

Of course, the decisions on business-related matters taken by Members of the European Parliament reverberate far beyond just the city itself; they affect all of the 25 member states, as well as neighbouring countries and Europe’s export and import partners around the globe.

A profusion of red tape is often complained of within the business community, but current European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, based in the EU executive’s Berlaymont headquarters, has vowed to lighten the burden on business by proposing less and better directives. This year marks the second of his five-year reign as president, and the jury is still out on his achievements in the directives department. Certainly he tried gamely to breathe new life into the so-called Lisbon Agenda, which aims to make Europe “the most dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010”. There’s a long way to go on that score but, for its part, Brussels shows no sign of giving up. As for the locals, the Flemish communities have in recent years overtaken their Wallonia-based counterparts and shifted the focus for innovation across the country. Government investment aims to swing the pendulum back again but, either way, there’s no doubt that little Belgium – and particularly Brussels – is at the centre of European business.