EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU's new president, Herman Van Rompuy, has opted to hold his first EU summit in an old library in order to create an informal atmosphere. The 11 February meeting is to take place in the 108-year-old Bibliotheque Solvay, situated in a small park between the EU member states' normal meeting venue, the Justus Lipsius building, and the European Parliament complex in Brussels. The 27 leaders will spend almost the whole day, from 9am until 6pm, alone in the library's wood-panneled and book-lined main room. Each leader will be allowed to bring along one advisor, but the 27 aides will be segregated in a separate chamber. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and the EU's foreign relations chief, Catherine Ashton, have also been invited.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU's new president, Herman Van Rompuy, has opted to hold his first EU summit in an old library in order to create an informal atmosphere.
The 11 February meeting is to take place in the 108-year-old Bibliotheque Solvay, situated in a small park between the EU member states' normal meeting venue, the Justus Lipsius building, and the European Parliament complex in Brussels.
The 27 leaders will spend almost the whole day, from 9am until 6pm, alone in the library's wood-panneled and book-lined main room. Each leader will be allowed to bring along one advisor, but the 27 aides will be segregated in a separate chamber.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and the EU's foreign relations chief, Catherine Ashton, have also been invited.
As the first President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy was always going to have a battle to carve out a distinct role for himself. He may not, however, have anticipated the furore over his efforts to find a new venue to host his inaugural summit. Mr Van Rompuy, the owlish Belgian who beat Tony Blair to the job, has spurned his Brussels headquarters in favour of a less formal spot -- a 108-year-old restored library -- for the meeting on February 11. The Bibliotheque Solvay is only a few hundred yards down the road but even such a small move has serious implications for the security of the 27 heads of state who will gather there. It has also raised eyebrows because the library's cosy wood-panelled surroundings hark back to the days of informal European summits unencumbered by officials, minute-takers and the media. This informal system of "fireside chats" was pioneered in the 1970s by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the former President of France, with his opposite number in Germany, Helmut Schmidt, before the EU became too big to run as a gentlemen's club.
As the first President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy was always going to have a battle to carve out a distinct role for himself. He may not, however, have anticipated the furore over his efforts to find a new venue to host his inaugural summit.
Mr Van Rompuy, the owlish Belgian who beat Tony Blair to the job, has spurned his Brussels headquarters in favour of a less formal spot -- a 108-year-old restored library -- for the meeting on February 11. The Bibliotheque Solvay is only a few hundred yards down the road but even such a small move has serious implications for the security of the 27 heads of state who will gather there.
It has also raised eyebrows because the library's cosy wood-panelled surroundings hark back to the days of informal European summits unencumbered by officials, minute-takers and the media. This informal system of "fireside chats" was pioneered in the 1970s by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the former President of France, with his opposite number in Germany, Helmut Schmidt, before the EU became too big to run as a gentlemen's club.
