Scotland House Brussels: future model

Since 1999, the Scottish Government and Scotland Europa teams have been co-located at Scotland House Brussels, with Europa being a member-based organisation.  

Scottish Enterprise have taken the difficult decision to close Scotland Europa with effect from 31 March 2026, and the Scottish Government will take over the lease for the Scotland House premises at Rond-point Schuman 6.

Scotland Europa offered a range of services to its members, for which it charged both an annual membership fee and fees for specific services.

While we will no longer have the 8th floor conference centre, Scotland House Brussels will remain sufficiently large to enable the Scottish Government to offer services to public, private and third sector Scotland-based stakeholders visiting Brussels.

The purpose of this discussion process with stakeholders is to enable SG to consider options for a future offer which could most effectively meet the needs of potential members, including existing Europa members, business groups and other Scotland-based organisations.

Have your say

Your views are requested in response to the following questions:

1. Which services would be most useful to you?
2. Which partners would you like Scotland House Brussels to work with to enable you to get the best out of Brussels visits?
3. Would you be prepared to pay an annual fee for the service?

1. Scotland House potential services

Touchdown office space

The space available in Scotland House Brussels would allow us to offer touchdown office space for visitors to Brussels in a shared space right in the heart of the EU district.

If your organisation would value this service, it would be helpful if you could estimate roughly how often and how many people might want to work in Scotland House.

Events and conference space

Our plans for the space include an events space for a maximum of 100 people seated or 120 in reception format.

We also have a conference room with a capacity of 30.

These could be made available for members to host events or meetings.

Reporting and analysis

The Scottish Government team includes policy expertise across a number of important EU sectors. The team already produces reporting and analysis for Scottish Government stakeholders, and this offer could be extended to members. If you would value this service, it would be helpful to know policy areas of particular value to your organisation.

Branding

Scotland House materials and digital channels offer branding opportunities for members who wish to promote their work to a Brussels audience.

Events

Scotland House currently organises three flagship events per year - for St Andrews, Burns and a Summer Reception – which are key opportunities to promote Scotland.

Members could receive invitations for themselves and key partners.

Other services

Would your organisation want Scotland House to provide any other services? If so, please could you provide details.

2. Partners

The Scottish Government team in Brussels enjoy excellent relationships with colleagues from the EU institutions (the Commission, Council and Parliament) and experts from EU Member State and regional offices, as well as the UK Mission and other non-Member State offices in Brussels.

Brussels also plays host to an array of policy-specific or general networks and think-tanks, business representations, civil society representations and others. Both the Scottish Government and Scotland Europa teams have been members of some of these. With the closure of Scotland Europa in coming weeks, it makes sense to review where we put our resources to create maximum impact for people and organisations in Scotland.

Which Brussels-based partners would be most valuable for your organisation?

It would be helpful also to explain how far you think the Scottish Government could help facilitate the access you need.

3. Charges

In the current financial climate, there would be additional costs to provide the type of services listed above, which we would need to recover.

For member events, this would include costs for catering, security and additional staff to ensure the event is a success, and would probably be best charged on an event-by-event basis.

An annual income stream could also enable an additional staff member to be employed locally to manage member services directly.

We would aim to recover these costs through an annual membership fee. This could be charged at different tiers, depending on the services provided to each member.

How to respond

Please send your comments to scotlandhousebrussels@gov.scot by 31 March 2026.