Located just 35 minutes away by high speed train, Lille Metropole is a short journey away from the european hub of Brussels. This enables agents to come easily to the Lille Metropole Brussels representation to ensure that the strong links and connexions with both the European and Brussels stakeholders continue to develop and flourish.

At the end of September, the management team of Lille Metropole’s Economic Development and Employment department came to Brussels to meet with members of the Eurocities team, in order to discuss Eurocities' priorities for the new European mandate, and current and future cooperation initiatives with Lille Metropole, particularly in the Eurocities Economic Development Forum.

Also on the program was a meeting with Philippe Antoine, General Director economic expansion, and Somesh Barot, responsible for external contacts from Citydev, the Brussels-Capital Region development agency, who works on the conception and implementation of mixed-use development projects, on the management of economic expansion and on housing accessibility. The very interesting talks of this meeting focused on productive cities and the return of industry to the city. 

Two site visits were also on the program

- A visit to Greenbizz (part of the Tivoli GreenCity project, one of the largest mixed and sustainable neighbourhoods being created in Brussels), which is home to entrepreneurial and innovative projects in the sustainable, solidarity-based and circular economy in Brussels. GreenBizz includes 17 modules for production workshops ranging from 120 to 550m², a 2,800m² incubator with administrative, support and coaching services, and Brussels' first fablab: Cityfab1.  

- Finally, the team were able to visit BE-HERE, a center for sustainable businesses including a microbrewery, an organic market, food stalls, a bike repair workshop, rooms for organising events, etc…

These visits enabled Lille Metropole’s Economic Development and Management team to share experiences and common challenge with their Brussels counterparts. The proximity between Lille Metropole and Brussels mentioned above gives us the opportunity to often hosts these types of operational seminars in our Brussels premises, the latest being a seminar for Lille Metropole’s Digital team.