I missed this in the first trawl of my diaries. It takes on a particular poignancy given the events of 2016.
Hotel Leopold, Brussels, 15th -16th March 1999
In Brussels with a Cambridge delegation to visit the East of England Region Office hoping to find out what it is doing for us in Europe. It is based at 18 Square de Meeus, which, full of trees, must once have been very grand, but is now surrounded by ugly office blocks with vestiges of late 19th century facades. The timing of our visit in unfortunate: the EU Commissioners are under censure and may be sacked or asked to resign. The minds of the Eurocrats are on that, not talking to us. We spend the evening drinking Quack beer at the Golden Boot.
Next day the Commissioners have resigned. We face multiple presentations, leaving us aware of our ignorance and feeling that the team here are all about process, not product. If that depresses us, a final look at the shiny steel, granite and glass Parliament building squatting in a sea of squalor does nothing to lift our mood. Modern architecture has not done well by Brussels.