State Secretary Michel promises to work quickly on the restoration of the Japanese Tower and Chinese Pavilion (Brussels)

Federal State Secretary Mathieu Michel (MR), responsible for the Buildings Agency, considers it a “remarkable method” by Brussels State Secretary Ans Persoons (Vooruit.brussels) to complete the renovation of the Chinese Pavilion and the Japanese Tower in Laeken by means of a notice of default. force.

Source: BELGA

Today at 3:17 PM

On Friday morning, State Secretary Ans Persoons, responsible for Urban Planning and Heritage, communicated that she is notifying Federal State Secretary Mathieu Michel due to the poor condition of two unique Brussels monuments: the Japanese tower and the Chinese pavilion, both built at the request of King Leopold II, between 1901 and 1905 on the Heysel plain.

READ ALSO. The Buildings Agency declared in default for dilapidated Japanese Tower and Chinese Pavilion

Persoons instructed the Brussels urban planning department urban.brussels to declare Michel in default “due to the dilapidation” of both monuments in the Laeken sub-municipality.

Discussion

The Federal State Secretary finds the method “surprising”. “It is even more surprising because there are regular administrative and political exchanges between the Brussels Region and the Buildings Agency regarding the conservation and renovation of these two buildings.” According to Michel, another such meeting took place last week.

Michel says that a personal interview even took place between himself and State Secretary Persoons. “The Region is therefore well informed of the progress of these two projects.”

Michel is confident that the renovation work on the Chinese Pavilion can start quickly. “The file will be submitted to the federal council of ministers at the end of April,” Michel promises. As for the Japanese Tower, a consultancy firm has just been engaged to “organize a contract for the execution of the works”.

“Although we can understand the impatience of some to bring these two projects to a successful conclusion, we cannot understand the method of State Secretary Persoons,” Michel concludes. Persoons’ method is nothing more than “a form of pre-electoral marketing.”