European Parliament building to be named after former EPP President Wilfried Martens

The Bureau of the European Parliament has announced that the new European Parliament building currently under construction in Brussels (Trebel site, Rue Belliard) will be named the Wilfried Martens Building. With this decision, the European Parliament is paying tribute to the achievements of the former EPP President who passed away in October last year.

Joseph Daul MEP, Chairman of the EPP Group and President of the European People's Party, welcomed this decision: "Wilfried Martens was a great European, a founding father of the EPP, and of the European Union. We are glad that his tireless engagement in promoting European integration will be commemorated in the name of the new European Parliament building. It is important that future generations remember all that Wilfried Martens meant for Europe."

Wilfried Martens, former Belgian Prime Minister (1979-1992), was President  of the EPP from 1990 until 2013, Chairman of the EPP Group from 1994 until 1999 and founder and President of the Centre for European Studies, recently renamed the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies.

The new building, which will comply with the highest energy efficiency standards and will be heated with ground-source heat pumps, will be ready in 2017.