Not all colleagues have children enrolled in the Evere site of Brussels European School II, but for those who have, news are never enough. Evere was set in temporary facilities until a fully-fledged school would be constructed. While the temporary facilities are not perfect, they provide enough quality for children and education.What is an agony is the continuous drop of news reminding us that the site is temporary and could disappear, even though orally, all the relevant parties express reassuring words confirming the continuity of the school. 

The recent urban plan for the area simply ignored the school, concerning the affected parents. Many parents and Generation 2004 wrote to the authorities requesting not only to consider the existence of the school, but also to introduce the necessary missing improvements. 

The updated urban plan has been approved, ignoring most comments by the parents but at least putting again the school in the map. 

However, it seems that we’ll have to stay still in the blur. The plan recognises the existence of the school, but is still unclear about the temporal situation of the school: 

PG.0.13. Les immeubles existants autorisés par le permis 04/PFD/1770033 (Permis d’urbanisme à durée limitée, jusque 3/2027, pour construire une école européenne temporaire de 1 500 places sur le site de l’OTAN) peuvent faire l’objet de travaux de transformation, de rénovation lourde ou de démolition-reconstruction jusqu’au 31 décembre 2037.

Ces actes et travaux respectent les conditions suivantes :

1. ils n’entraînent pas un accroissement supérieur à 20 % de la superficie de plancher existante ;
2. ils respectent les caractéristiques urbanistiques de l’îlot;
3. ils sont soumis aux mesures particulières de publicité ;
4. ils ne mettent pas en péril la mise en œuvre et le bon fonctionnement du quartier urbain. À cet égard, toute nouvelle demande de permis d’urbanisme à durée limitée, au-delà de mars 2027, évaluera son impact sur la mise en œuvre effective du quartier urbain (notamment en terme de phasage dans le temps) et sera soumise à l’avis de l’administration en charge de la planification territoriale

One could read in this text is that the school is still temporary but for 10 more years, until 2037 rather than 2027. Mild good news? 

We’ll keep on following this saga and informing you. As usual, we’d be happy to hear from you, particularly if you manage to get official written information!