New visitor centre set to open in EU parliament

The finishing touches are being put to a new €15m visitor centre at the European parliament.

It is claimed the centre is designed to meet growing public interest in the institution.

Centrepiece of the 6,000 square metre ground-floor building will be a state-of-the-art, interactive feature which will allow the public to simulate the work of an MEP.

Inside a mock hemicycle, visitors will be able to act out an MEP’s role, passing fictitious EU legislation and taking part in debates.

It is based on similar exhibitions in the Norwegian and Danish parliaments.

A Brussels-based consultancy, One Market, is part of a consortium which successfully bid for the contract for the role-play game.

Others involved are Norwegian company, Media Farm, and the College of Europe.

A spokesman for One Market said the game is designed to make the EU’s notoriously complex decision-making process easier to understand.

The visitor centre, which the parliament claims will be the second biggest in the world, is due to open in time for the European elections in June 2009.

Located in a recently-completed building on Trierstraat, the ground-floor will accommodate up to 500,000 annually.

It also features a permanent exhibition on parliament, outling its impact on peoples’ daily lives, sections on the history of European integration, a children’s area and a resource centre where visitors will have access via databases to more detailed information on the role of the parliament. It will also have a cafeteria and gift shop and will be open to the general public.

Details on its design will be submitted this spring with the work expected to start soon afterwards.

Marjory Vanden Broeke, a parliament spokeswoman, said, “The problem is that our current visitor centre, which has  been open since the mid-1990s, is too small to meet the fast-growing demand from individuals and visitor and school groups. Hopefully, this exciting new centre will rectify that.”

 

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