European Commission to close half of its buildings as telework is ‘new norm’
The European Commission plans to close half of its 50 office buildings across Brussels by 2030 as it aims to merge office space and allow home working beyond the pandemic.
European Commissioner for Budget and Administration Johannes Hahn told reporters on Tuesday that the institution “will reduce significantly the number of buildings in the course of the next 10 years” to just 25 buildings across the EU capital. Hahn said this “long-term building policy until 2030” was seeking to make the Commission “more green” by reducing building emissions and “more digital” by keeping home working as a standard practice after the coronavirus pandemic ends.
It’s a remarkable shift in policy for an institution that collectively represents the second-largest global economy. And it signals just how dramatically the pandemic has reshaped work expectations. It also illustrates the ever-greater integration of climate goals with managerial decisions at the world’s most powerful institutions.
“Like all public and private organizations, we are now looking at the most useful balance between office and home working for the longer term … it’s the new norm,” Hahn said. “We made surveys and more than 90 percent of our staff is very much in favor of having two to three days per week of teleworking,” he added, pointing out that “our office surfaces will be adapted to the generalized use of teleworking,” with details still to be discussed with staff unions.
