There is a virtual reality plane trip, a quiz, a presentation from the world’s “most powerful woman”, and a souvenir photo: it is all part of the offer at one of the latest tourist attractions to arrive in Brussels – the European Commission exhibition centre.
Experience Europe, which has been open just under a year, seeks to explain the work of the commission, which proposes and enforces EU law, and for many is the epitome of “Brussels”. It is the latest example of how the bloc is trying to appeal to the public. Stung by criticism of being an elite project with bamboozling and opaque processes, the EU has sharpened up communication efforts in the past 15 years. The European parliament opened a visitors’ centre, the Parlamentarium, in 2011, followed by a museum dedicated to European history in 2017.
Even the most secretive EU institution, the European Council, where ministers and government leaders negotiate, has a visitors’ centre and an app, called EUcraft, where players can negotiate laws on behalf of their governments; for example, lobbying to delay the introduction of a ban on single-use plastics – a fair reflection of how governments tend to slow down ambitious EU proposals.
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