Source: European Parliament
When the Commission President decided to use the existing room for resting in the Berlaymont to reside when she is in Brussels, she decided as well to have a monthly deduction of her allowance to cover for all expenses related to her accommodation and more.
The sale of 23 buildings reduces overall building expenditure whilst simultaneously improving and greening the Commission’s real estate portfolio (in line with its climate neutrality objective) and ensuring good and modern working conditions for its staff.
Starting from a total office space of 780 000 m2 in 2021, the Commission aims to reach 580 000 m2 by 2030. This net reduction of 200 000 m2 is obtained by abandoning around 500 000 m2 in buildings with low environmental performance and taking up around 300 000 m2 of office space in new high-performance buildings to improve and green the Commission’s real estate. Of the 23 buildings sold, the Commission continues to occupy 17 until 2026-2027 and 3 until 2029.
The Commission is actively seeking new surfaces on the market to replace sold buildings. The Commission considers leasing new buildings to be more cost-effective than retaining ownership of the buildings sold as the latter would have involved costs for renovation (with related project and legal uncertainty) and for leasing additional surfaces during renovation.