Brussels is the home of the European parliament. Mark Renders/Getty Images
Mid-day Update

Mid-day Extra: What sets Brussels apart

Stacey Vanek Smith Dec 9, 2011
Brussels is the home of the European parliament. Mark Renders/Getty Images

People around the world are talking about the European summit that just wrapped up in Brussels today.  It’s the latest turn in the  spotlight for Brussels —  as the European debt crisis  continues to dominate business news.

And it also raises the interesting question of just how important Brussels is on the international stage — and what goes on in the Belgian capital

The European Union is headquartered in the Belgian captial, and in many ways it is an international city like Washington DC. At the same time, the country as a whole managed to function without an official leader for over 540 days.

In today’s Mid-day Extra, we asked: how do all these summits affect the city of Brussels?

To answer our questions, we called Margaret Nicholson, who’s the executive director of the Fulbright Commission in Belgium.

According to her, the city has a whole lot more to offer than Stella Artois.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.