On 22 January 1972, the leaders of Denmark, Norway, Ireland and the United Kingdom sat down in the Egmont Palace in Brussels to sign the international agreement that brought their countries into the European Economic Community.
The palace stands on the site of a 16th-century residence once owned by Lamoral d’Egmont, one of two aristocrats executed on Grand’Place in 1568.
The property was eventually acquired by the Duke of Arenberg, who in 1753 employed the architect Jean-Nicolas Servandoni to design a new palace.
For the UK prime minister, Edward Heath, it was the end of a long struggle to bring his country into the emerging economic organisation, after France’s De Gaulle repeatedly said ‘non’.
For the Norwegian prime minister, it turned out to be a step too far, as the Norwegian people rejected EEC membership in a referendum later that year.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
