Complaint filed against new national stadium - more on the way

Member of the Brussels’ parliament, Arnaud Verstraete of opposition party Groen, has filed a case with a justice of the peace calling on the Capital-Region to make public all agreements and contracts relating to the construction of the new national football stadium at Heysel.

“This has all the appearance of back-room politics,” Verstraete said. Finance minister Guy Vanhengel, he said, “swore this would cost the taxpayer nothing. In the meantime, we discover that the people will have to pay for the operation of the stadium, the car park, security costs and more.”

The Brussels taxpayer would, in the end, be facing a bill for hundreds of millions of euros, he said. Other politicians have joined Verstraete in his concerns about Eurostadium, including Vilvoorde mayor Hans Bonte (SP.A). “Do commuters really want to sit in traffic jams every day the way they do during the Auto Salon or Batibouw?” Bonte asked.

The mayor stressed that he had nothing against the construction of a new stadium, but the entire Neo project, which includes the stadium and a shopping and leisure complex, will lead to daily traffic chaos on Brussels’ ring road and environmental degradation, he said.

Eurostadium would be situated on Parking C of the Heysel site, which is in the territory of Grimbergen, Flemish Brabant. As a neighbouring municipality, Vilvoorde has already delivered a negative advice for the project.

Bonte now plans to take his objection to the courts, too. His council raised a similar objection to the shopping and leisure complex Uplace in Machelen, but, as he told De Standaard, he was keen to avoid giving the impression he was simply against everything.

“I’m not a conservative who wants everything to be the way it was,” he said. “This is about local interests, but also everyone’s interest. Who wants to sit in such a traffic jam every day?”

Photo courtesy Ghelamco