05/03/2007 11:57:00 am
Sunday in Bruges. I am in Brussels for a few meetings and conference - at the same time as the meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers. Yesterday was spent in Bruges, once a commercial trade centre in Northern Europe. This was roughly the same time as the Italian city states like Venice opened up for trade and initated capitalism. Read more here. If I remember correctly, Bruges is also known to be the place of the first stock-market exchange, an essential part in a free economy. In a way, this is where it all began. Against heavy resistance from, for example, the Church, and not least under foreign threats, prosperity was built. Perhaps there should be more EU Meetings in Bruges rather than Brussels...