The new European Council building in Brussels

Europe is full of ugly new office buildings, without the slightest relationship to the people working in them. Fortunately, there is at least one exception.

The new European Council building is still under construction, but one can easily grasp the genial idea behind the entire structure by looking at this picture:

What could better symbolise the work of the European Council (with its countless mostly useless "summits") than an empty bubble - or is it a balloon? - in the centre. The top eurocrats, who chose the winning entry, probably demanded that the architects hide the bubble in a box in order for it not to be too visible for ordinary passers-by.

We are told that the president of the European Council, a haiku poet by the name of Herman van Rompuy, will have his new luxurious offices in the building - on top of the bubble, perhaps?).

The European Council bubble is set to open in 2014, that is, if everything goes well. There is, of course the possibility that an even bigger bubble could burst before that, creating slight problems for the financing of the construction project.