EU sinks €4M into nonexistent renovation for OACPS’ Brussels HQ

European taxpayers have paid €4 million ($4.2 million) to facilitate a renovation that may now never take place at the Brussels headquarters of the faltering Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States.

The OACPS is a group of around 80 mostly African countries, with ties to the European Union dating back to the 1970s. It is represented in Brussels by a 56-person secretariat working on issues such as climate change and private sector development in low-income countries, and is co-financed by the EU. In 2020, the proposed budget for the overall running of the secretariat was €15.9 million, including €6.5 million from the EU.

In July 2020, with the European Commission’s backing, the secretariat temporarily left its longtime offices at 451 Avenue Georges Henri — where the EU district meets the wealthy suburb of Woluwe Saint-Lambert — to allow for renovations.

Yet today, almost 29 months later, not only has construction not started, but not even the tender for those renovation works is ready to be released. And with the lease expiring in mid-2023 at its rented office in the chic Châtelain neighborhood, the OACPS is now considering selling the Georges Henri building and buying an existing property somewhere new — potentially rendering pointless the €4 million for technical assistance on the works and rent that European taxpayers have so far paid for the group’s temporary home.

The saga is likely to intensify the debate underway in Brussels development circles over whether to keep supporting the OACPS at all. Seen by some in the EU as a means of maintaining alliances around the world, the group’s clout has diminished in recent years — exacerbated by the recent departure of key member South Africa, and a moribund EU-OACPS partnership agreement (still blocked by Hungary). A costly, failed renovation will only add further questions from those who doubt the group’s relevance and utility for Europe’s geopolitical ambitions.

Something borrowed, something new

In December 2014, the commission signed an agreement to fully fund an extensive renovation at Avenue Georges Henri for €17.5 million. Plans available online by architects ALTIPLAN, who won the contract in 2018 to prepare the construction tender, foresee major changes to create a new conference room, move the entrance, and install new heating and air conditioning, among other things.

In the meantime, the OACPS secretariat rented a conference center across town at 118 Rue de l’Aqueduc in Ixelles, a stone’s throw from trendy Place du Châtelain. Rent at the center is €1 million per year. It offers 8,000 square meters, around 100 parking spaces, and many conference rooms, including one capable of holding hundreds of people, as required for some OACPS meetings.

The Châtelain property was rented for two years to July 2022, including the possibility to extend twice by six months. With the OACPS having made full use of that option, the lease now ends definitively in July 2023. The question is what happens then?

Construction at Avenue Georges Henri has not started. A commission spokesperson told Devex in September that the renovation was expected to take 18 months from the signature of the works contract and that “technical experts hired by the OACPS continue to draft the works tender dossier with the view to finalise this as soon as possible.” But as of today, the tender for the works has not been released. Contacted by Devex this week, ALTIPLAN declined to comment.

The commission told Devex in September that “external factors such as the COVID-19 Pandemic and current inflation rates on construction materials have had an impact on the preparation of the tender dossier.”

In May 2021, however, the OACPS secretariat briefed its member countries’ ambassadors in more detail on the reasons for the delay. The ambassadors were told that drafts of the dossier had contractual and technical shortcomings, and failed to comply with EU procurement rules. A bill for material, parts, and labor drawn up in 2021 came to €14 million, well above the allocated budget of €8 million. That prompted a revision of the tender that saw plans for a fitness center scrapped as well as the simplification of the kitchen and cafeteria.

The OACPS secretariat has also undergone a restructuring in recent years, reducing its headcount, including some of those staff working on the renovation project.

Now what?

With time running out until the OACPS is forced to leave the rented conference center in July 2023, the organization is now considering canceling the renovation altogether.

The commission spokesperson told Devex this week that at the end of November this year ministers from OACPS countries authorized the secretariat to “assess the feasibility of a turn-key option for the headquarters.”

Member countries’ ambassadors to the OACPS will now “consider a decision of the possible sale of the building versus the option to renovate,'' the commission spokesperson told Devex.

Of the €17.5 million approved by the commission for the renovation project in 2014, the spokesperson said €4 million has so far been paid out to cover “technical assistance to the Secretariat and the rental fees for the temporary accommodation of the Secretariat.”

An OACPS spokesperson confirmed this week that the organization was now considering whether to buy a new, ready-to-use property elsewhere, but did not elaborate on the reasons for the delay in the works at Avenue Georges Henri.

Vanishing momentum

The strife over the renovation comes at a difficult time for the OACPS, which is struggling to prove its added value to the Europeans as well as its own members. The EU increasingly looks to the African Union for its political engagement with the continent. South Africa — one of OACPS’ main contributors — recently announced that it was leaving the OACPS, and signaled that the format was superfluous to its relationship with the EU. Meanwhile, the pending EU-OACPS Post-Cotonou partnership agreement is years behind schedule and remains unsigned.

The Post-Cotonou deal covers topics like migration and human rights, though it no longer guides EU development spending as in the past. The pact has been in limbo for over a year and half. Initialed by the European Commission and OACPS in April 2021, its signature is being blocked by Hungary. Budapest claims to oppose the language on legal migration but is also likely using its veto as part of a larger battle with the commission, which is limiting Hungary’s access to EU funds due to democratic backsliding. The ECDPM think tank wrote recently that the delay has seen momentum for the renewed EU-OACPS partnership vanish.

Not every EU state supported the idea of continuing the bloc’s relationship with the OACPS in the first place. Now both sides are wondering whether the deal still makes sense, and what to do if Hungary’s opposition extends into next year. The existing Cotonou agreement has already been prolonged multiple times, and many doubt the EU-OACPS relationship could survive another extension beyond the current June 2023 deadline.

Against that backdrop, the last thing both sides need is a headache over real estate. But now they do not have a choice.

Do you know more about this story? Email vince.chadwick@devex.com.