Brussels Sprouts

For decades, most Europeans scoffed at Brussels, the capital of Belgium, for its provincial drabness and its all-pervading smell of pommes frites. But in 1958 the city put on a highly success ful World's Fair, the Common Market opened headquarters there, and finally NATO moved in. The most obvious result of that varied activity is that Brussels has become an international business center, a special favorite of U.S. companies setting up shop in Europe.

Last week Phillips Petroleum Co. was in the process of moving into the Hilton Tower, completed less than a year ago. All Phillips' European and African operations will be managed from the new offices. Corning Glass International, General Foods, Pittsburgh Plate Glass are also among the U.S. companies that have opened European headquarters in Brussels within the past few months. They have joined the 165 established by last September, ranging from Abbott Laboratories to Young & Rubicam, from Cessna and Coca-Cola Export to Sears Roebuck, to say nothing of such heavyweights as ITT, Texaco, Monsanto, Pfizer International, Ethyl Corp. and Procter & Gamble.

A Better Break. Corn Products Europe, which decided to expand its office in Zurich, packed up and moved to Brussels instead, after Swiss authorities refused to grant work permits for additional employees. "We prospected the alternatives," said a company official, "and all signs pointed to Brussels. Central location, communications facilities, availability of living and office space, attitude of the government--all were head and shoulders above any other place." Only rarely is government permission needed to set up a firm in Belgium. Says an American banker in Brussels: "You don't ask anybody. You just come in, have a lawyer arrange things, publish the fact in the official journal and you're in business."

Companies that set up headquarters in Belgium simply to get a tax break get a break indeed--they pay no taxes at all. There are also advantages for those that actually do business in the country; they pay low taxes and are eligible for interest-free government loans. Attracted by such incentives, U.S. companies have invested $780 million in Belgium in the past decade and created some 28,000 new jobs.

Nouveaux Gourmets. New office buildings started sprouting in Brussels six years ago, and the construction boom, the biggest in any capital on the Continent, continues. Along the boulevards, 20-to 38-story buildings, a phenomenon for Europe, offer low-cost rental space. The price of luxury apartments and villas, though, has zoomed under the influx of ambassadors, generals and business executives, and the city's gourmet restaurants are straining at their stars to satisfy the appetites of the new trenchermen. But on the whole, Brussels still wears the face of probity. "After all," says Burgomaster Lucien Cooremans, "ten years is not very long in the history of a small town that is becoming a big city."

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