Ask British expats about Brussels life and some will admit that they don’t feel as if they live in Belgium.

British newspapers are printed here and can be delivered to your door. English is the language of business, while private British and European schools are on hand to educate your kids.

Even BBC television is beamed across Belgium: those really in need of a reminder of home can watch images of London’s standstill traffic on the news and smirk as they hear about Tube delays on the Northern Line.

Then there’s the EU bubble life in Brussels. Frequently, journalists, eurocrats, lobbyists and lawyers socialise in national or pan-national circles without mixing with many Belgians. All in all, it’s easy for the 60,000 Brits here to overlook their host.

(more…)

As commutes go, it’s not exactly bad. My tram ride to central Brussels takes me past Cartier, Longchamp and other designer stores that line Avenue Louise, one of the city’s longest and poshest thoroughfares.

The swanky shops and chic art nouveau apartment buildings dotting the avenue and surrounding suburbs are just one sign of the entrenched wealth in parts of Brussels.

Figures published this week show the city has the third highest GDP per inhabitant in the European Union. Boosted in part by the presence of the EU institutions, and service and manufacturing sectors, it trails only second-placed Luxembourg and central London.

(more…)

It was a hot day in August 2004, and I was sitting around a table munching seafood with a few journalists and the man who had just been appointed the next president of the European Commission. The meeting took place in a stuffy room on the first floor of an Italian restaurant, and was billed as Jose Manuel Barroso’s first meeting with the Brussels press.I remember that he barely touched his lightly-grilled squid, fish and prawns. Instead, he talked and talked - with confidence, drive and considerable eloquence - about his priorities as the new head of the EU executive. Again and again, Barroso insisted he would put economic reforms at the heart of his tenure, slash red tape and stimulate competition. He stressed the importance of the Lisbon Agenda - the ambitious reform package designed to make Europe the most competitive economy in the world by the end of the decade.

In one sentence: his would be a pro-business Commission.

(more…)

Has the president of the European Central Bank finally given ground in the long-running "battle of the Jean-Claudes"? After months of refusing to discuss holding more meetings with Jean-Claude Juncker, the political head of the eurozone, ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet, now seems ready to talk.

Mr Trichet famously refused to reply to a letter from Mr Juncker last year, after the Luxembourg prime minister suggested they should have regular informal chats - possibly over breakfast. The ECB president reckoned his public acceptance of this invitation to coffee and croissants could be seen as giving in to political pressure.

But earlier this month the two did get together for an informal 45-minute chinwag in Frankfurt, along with Joaquin Almunia, the EU monetary affairs commissioner. More such encounters could follow. So has Mr Trichet sold part of the bank’s independence, as some of the sobre suited boys at Germany’s Bundesbank seem to believe?

(more…)

Ralph Atkins in Frankfurt

Nordics are setting the pace in central bank transparency. That is clear from the announcement this week by Sweden’s Riksbank

that it will follow Norway’s example in publishing forecasts of its own interest rates.

Don’t yawn: this is state-of-the-art stuff in academic economics circles. Monetary policy these days is largely about influencing the economy through expectations.

(more…)