A report said air conditioning was shut off on lower floors of the European Commission’s Brussels headquarters while senior officials’ floors remained cooled during extreme heat.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The European Commission is facing criticism after a report said air conditioning was shut off on lower floors of its Brussels headquarters during last week’s heat wave while cooling remained on for the upper floors used by senior European Union officials.
According to a POLITICO report, the Commission’s Berlaymont building turned off air conditioning on floors one through seven “due to extreme weather conditions.”
The outlet reported that cooling continued on floors eight through 13, where European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the bloc’s 26 commissioners work.
The arrangement drew complaints from some employees who said the system appeared to prioritize senior officials over other staff working in the building.
“It’s like feudalism,” one official who works on the lower floors told POLITICO.
Another employee called the situation a “disgrace.”
A staffer on the eighth floor said conditions there were also uncomfortable, reporting that temperatures reached 25.7 degrees Celsius, or 78.26 degrees Fahrenheit, on Friday.
The report prompted wider criticism of the Commission, including from Marc Botenga, a left-wing Belgian member of the European Parliament. Botenga said the situation reflected “contempt” toward civil servants and a broader “lack of respect for workers.”
The controversy came as Europe faced intense heat, renewing debate over air conditioning access on a continent where many homes and buildings are not equipped with cooling systems. In Belgium, only about one-fifth of homes have air conditioning installed.
The issue has become political across Europe. Right-wing populist parties, including Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in France, have called for major investments in air conditioning. Some on the left have warned that expanding air conditioning use could worsen climate change by increasing energy consumption.
Europe’s older infrastructure has raised public health concerns during increasingly severe summer heat. According to the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, more than 62,700 heat-related deaths occurred in Europe during the summer of 2024, with more than 181,000 heat-related deaths recorded between 2022 and 2024.
The figures have intensified debate over whether European governments should expand access to cooling, particularly for older residents and other vulnerable populations.
By comparison, 44,447 people died from gun shootings in the United States during all of 2024, according to the figures provided. More than half of those deaths, 27,593, were suicides.
The Berlaymont report placed those broader questions inside the EU’s own headquarters, where staff complaints over unequal cooling access quickly became a symbol of tensions between senior officials and the workers who support the institution.
The Commission has not been quoted in the provided material offering a detailed explanation for why the air conditioning was turned off on some floors but not others. The episode has nonetheless sharpened scrutiny of how European institutions handle extreme heat, workplace conditions and climate-related infrastructure challenges.
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