Factcheck: Is the European Parliament sinking into a swamp?

The European Parliament moves to Strasbourg from Brussels once a month: an expensive operation that also burdens the environment.  Eurosceptic politicians have been known to use these arguments as a way of portraying the EU as a wasteful and money-guzzling machine. As a result, there are regular calls for the parliament to have one definitive location: Brussels or Strasbourg.

Conservative-liberal JA21 agrees. The party is a breakaway from the Dutch populist Forum for Democracy party.  JA21 feels they are the heirs of Pim Fortuyn, the Dutch politician assassinated on the eve of the Dutch general election in 2002. According to JA21, the Paul-Henri Spaak Building in Brussels was built on a swamp and is slowly sinking. As work to remedy this would cost €1 billion, JA21 wants to ‘return the building in Brussels to the swamp and move the parliament to Strasbourg’.

The Paul-Henri-Spaak Building was completed in 1993 and at the time cost €300 million. It is no great secret that it is in poor condition today. In 2012, for instance, cracks were discovered in the roof of the hall where plenary sessions are held. Claims it is now sinking into boggy soil paint a catastrophic picture of the place and add to the idea that the EU is careless with taxpayers' money. It is also grist to the mill of supporters of abandoning the Parliament in Brussels - mainly French people - in favour of the French city of Strasbourg.

Document remains confidential

Mr Hoogeveen has revealed that he is relying on articles from Dutch broadcaster NOS and Dutch daily NRC dating back to June 2017 to make his claims. At the time, there was indeed talk of the building sinking into the swamp at the rate of one centimetre per year. The articles refer to a confidential document on the condition of the building from the European Parliament’s Bureau.

That document was prepared in 2017 after studies showed the building was in poor condition. The choice between renovation or demolition and reconstruction was discussed. At a meeting on the document, ‘outdated technical installations, large water leaks, the lack of cooling capacity for technical rooms, the fact that the entrances do not comply with several security office decisions and Belgian rules on evacuation capacity’ all came up.

The sinking of the foundation was not mentioned at the meeting. In June 2017, several media reported on the memo, but nowhere - other than in the two Dutch articles - is it mentioned that the building is sinking into a Brussels swamp at the rate of a centimetre a year. News outlet Politico, which was able to see the confidential document, does not mention it either. VRT NWS tried to verify the contents of the memo, but even in 2024 it still appeared to be confidential.

Renovation costs

The European Parliament launched a competition to find a renovation project or proposal for a new construction. The winning renovation project, chosen in July 2022, included a transparent roof garden. It was dropped a year later for budgetary reasons.  It was decided only to carry out the renovations that are strictly necessary. This will happen step by step, so that the parliament can continue to function in the meantime. Preparations will start next year and the work itself begins in 2027.

The renovation is budgeted at €455 million - less than half of what JA21 claims - and is mainly aimed at making the building more energy efficient and modern, not at fixing any subsidence. That’s what the European Parliament’s spokesperson says and this is also reflected in the report of the Bureau’s meeting on the matter: leaks will be fixed; the technical installations will be modernised and the renovation should also make the building comply with the latest safety requirements.

Maalbeek Valley

So is parliament built on a swamp? Not really. The Paul-Henri Spaak Building stands in the valley of the Maalbeek, a brook that has been vaulted over. The subsoil consists partly of clay, sand and gravel, deposited by the stream. This affects the way a building settles after construction, because the weight of the building compresses the soil underneath. This is no different for the Paul-Henri Spaak Building, but that is definitely something very different to ‘sinking’.

According to a spokesperson for the European Parliament, settlement of the soil was taken into account when the building was designed. Most of the settlement happened in the first years after construction and then decreased. This settlement is being monitored to date but is fully in line with what was expected. According to the spokesperson, it is not happening at a rate of one centimetre per year.  It is not causing structural problems and is therefore not the subject of the planned renovation.

The Office of the Brussels Commissioner for Europe and International Organisations confirms that the foundations are not subject to the renovation work and that that is not necessary either. The building is safe, a spokesperson assures.

Reaction from JA21

In a response to Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, Michiel Hoogeveen acknowledged that his statement was incorrect. He had assumed 1 billion euros because newspaper articles dating from 2017 mentioned a figure of almost half a billion. Construction costs have risen enormously in the meantime and, moreover, projects like this always end up being more expensive, was his reasoning. "If the European Parliament now says it costs 455 million euros, that's it. A mistake on our part. C'est la vie."

When he read that the Spaak Building was being renovated, Hoogeveen assumed that the subsidence mentioned in the 2017 news articles was the reason. In addition, he had also read a European Parliament document about the building's ‘deteriorating’ condition. It now appears this was about other things than subsidence.

The European elections were held in the Netherlands on Thursday 6 June and Mr Hoogeveen lost its seat.