After being derided as a "frying pan" with barely a patch of shade, Brussels' revamped Schuman roundabout might get a greener makeover of 27 trees, one for each EU Member State.
Jonathan De Patoul, a Brussels MP for Défi who passes through Schuman every day, explained to The Brussels Times that the facelift given to the Schuman roundabout has created a heavily paved space ill-suited to a warming city. With the canopy axed due to mounting costs, the roundabout's future became unclear.
That is why De Patoul has suggested surrounding it with a ring of 27 trees in pots or large containers, each representing an EU Member State as a strong symbolic finish.
Because metro rail and infrastructure run underneath the square, planting large trees directly into the ground at Schuman is technically difficult. Instead, he explained that large containers that are already used elsewhere in Brussels can accommodate trees that are several metres tall.
His proposal could go beyond simply installing 27 identical trees. De Patoul told The Brussels Times that different tree species could be chosen to evoke different parts of Europe, as long as they could survive Brussels' climate.
"You don't want to try something that dies six months later because the climatic conditions aren't suitable," he said.
Countries could potentially have their own containers, decorated in their national colours. De Patoul floated the idea of organising a competition to determine how the project should look.
He also suggested that Member States themselves could symbolically finance the tree representing their country. "Financing a few large pots and a few trees isn't an enormous budget," he said.
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What happens if a member is added to the bloc?
"If we use containers, adding another one isn't very complicated," De Patoul explained, noting that they could also be moved if necessary.
However, the idea remains a proposal, rather than an agreed redevelopment.
De Patoul raised it during a parliamentary exchange with Brussels State Secretary for Urban Planning Audrey Henry (MR) on Monday.
According to De Patoul, Henry told him that the Bruxelles-Capitale Region is considering further measures to green the Schuman roundabout, although he has not yet received details about what this could mean.
He also highlighted an important point: "Brussels expects residents and developers to take environmental considerations into account when renovating buildings and reshaping private spaces, while the city has just spent millions on a major public square with relatively little greenery." He added that Brussels "must be able to lead by example."
DéFI's Jonathan de Patoul during a swearing-in ceremony at the Brussels Parliament on 11 June 2019. Credit: Belga/Thierry Roge.
Image of Brussels
'Frying pan', 'hellscape', 'sans l'ombre d'une ombre' are amongst the few titles international media outlets have used to decry the newly revamped roundabout.
The Brussels Times interviewed the man behind it all earlier this year, architect Francis De Wolf, who said then that the final result "will be used as a symbol for the failure of the city, the failure of the nation and, to a certain point, the failure of Europe."
Brussels Commissioner for liaison between the Region and the EU, Alain Hutchinson (PS), who stepped down in July 2026 after 12 years, told us then that Schuman has always been more than just another infrastructure project.
"It is an area filmed by television crews from around the world," he said. "It deserved to be redeveloped with dignity. The canopy was really the centrepiece. Without it, it is a let-down," he explained.
The debate, he said, is often reduced to arguments over costs, when the real issue is the image projected by Europe's capital. "People don't know the political story," he said. "They simply see the final result."
