Belgian govt confident DHL to locate European mail hub in Brussels
The Belgian government remains confident that Deutsche Post World Net AG’s express mail unit DHL will decide to set up its European mail centre in Brussels, and will announce the outcome of negotiations with local residents protesting the expansion of the national airport on Tuesday, a government spokesman said.
The Belgian authorities have been at loggerheads with local residents, who are trying to block the expansion because of the extra noise and night flights created by an enlarged airport.
Asked whether the government would succeed in securing DHL’s multi-million euro investment, the spokesman for Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, Didier Seews, said: ‘We are looking at both the noise pollution of night flights and the imperative of expansion to find a balance between ecology and economics.’
‘It will work,’ he said, when asked whether a compromise could be found ahead of next Tuesday’s crunch announcement.
For its part, DHL has made no promises, saying only that its future European hub will be capable of handling 3,000 tonnes of mail per day by 2012 and will be based in one of three locations: Brussels, Vatry in France, or Leipzig in Eastern Germany.
‘For the time being, no decision has been made as it is very clear that we are still waiting for (the) final decision of (the) Belgian government,’ said DHL spokesman Xavier de Buck.
‘We expect to have that in the coming days. At that moment we will be able to further analyse the three alternatives and communicate which is the preferred option when we are ready,’ he added.
This morning’s Le Soir daily newspaper quoted German Economics Minister Wolfgang Clement saying: ‘I believe that DHL will come to Leipzig.’
The German town’s airport, although without the central European location of Brussels, has scope for expansion and is well served by transport links, the paper said.
The decision has become a high-profile political issue in Belgium, with the government’s ability to negotiate a settlement with residents and win the three-way tug-of-war seen as a test of the country’s ability to attract foreign direct investment.
