New home from home for movers and shakers

Brussels - To the accompaniment of honks, squeals and moos, the European Union yesterday unveiled its newest building, writes Andrew Marshall. Herve de Charette, French Foreign Minister (above), represented the EU presidency at the opening of the pink palace that will accommodate the Council of Ministers, which brings ministers from member states together several times a month. The Justus Lipsius building, named after a long- dead jurist, is across the road from the Berlaymont, which once housed the European Commission but is now empty. The Council also meets for three months a year in Luxembourg but the Justus Lipsius building is the main home for the EU's most powerful institution. So it has acres of meeting rooms and plenty of cafeterias, banqueting rooms, bars and restaurants. The cacophony outside was not a comment on snouts in the trough but a protest against live-animal transport. Agriculture ministers were meeting inside to discuss that topic, among others; foreign minister were discussing Bosnia.

Photograph: Reuter