The European Commission headquarters in Brussels was forced to shut down its air-conditioning system on Friday due to an intense heatwave, leaving thousands of ordinary employees to swelter in the heat. Staff working at the Berlaymont building received an urgent midday text message announcing a forced shutdown of the air cooling system from floors one to seven for the rest of the day. As reported by Politico, this cooling restriction has highlighted a stark ‘class’ division within the 13-story building, which houses Commission President Ursula von der Leyen alongside 26 commissioners and approximately 3,000 staff members.
The decision sparked outrage among employees because the shutdown selectively targeted only the lower seven floors, where general staff offices are located. Meanwhile, the upper floors—which house the offices of von der Leyen on the 13th floor and most of her commissioners on floors eight and above—retained their cooling systems. This blatant disparity led one anonymous official working on a lower level to describe the situation as “feudalism,” while another staffer condemned the decision as a ‘disgrace.’
The cooling failure at the European Commission reflects a broader struggle across Belgium and the wider continent as Europe melts under record-breaking temperatures. Air-conditioning remains relatively rare in the region, with only about one-fifth of European households equipped with cooling systems. The infrastructure strain has also affected Belgium’s rail network, where a lack of cooling on one-fifth of the trains led the national rail company to cancel numerous peak-hour services, while the European Parliament suffered blackouts due to the energy demands of its own cooling systems.
