Mini-Europe and the NEO plan

What is the NEO project on the Heysel plateau?

A city-led plan for housing, shops, offices, leisure and a large sports park around the Atomium, first drawn up in a 2013 masterplan.

According to the City, NEO would bring 590 homes, two nurseries, a residence for older people, offices, 72,000 m2 of shops and 9,000 m2 of restaurants and leisure, with more than 3,000 jobs in the long run. The partners named on the brussels.be page are Unibail-Rodamco, CFE and Besix.

The plan has stalled more than once. The Council of State annulled a NEO permit in February 2025, and the project then sat in limbo until the new regional coalition agreed in February 2026 to revive it, with a new conference centre at its heart, as RTBF reported. The shopping centre half of the plan still has no published start date. The Sports Park is the piece that is moving.

What does NEO plan for Mini-Europe?

A fully renovated and larger park on the same site, under a long lease that begins once NEO's construction does.

In January 2021 Mini-Europe signed an agreement to stay on the plateau rather than move. La DH reported the terms: a 27-year lease with the developer once NEO building starts, an extension from about 24,000 m2 to nearly 30,000 m2, a rebuilt entrance pavilion and shop by the architect Jean Paul Viguier, bigger workshops and a new play area, with about EUR 6 million invested by the park.

Those were plans, not a timetable. In October 2024 the park's new managing director, Vinciane Meeûs, told La Libre that the current lease runs to 2032 and that the uncertainty was holding the company back, since some partner countries would not fund new models without a ten-year horizon. We have found nothing since that fixes a date for the renovation.

What happened in August 2026?

Mini-Europe said the planned Sports Park would surround the park, cut visitor access and threaten its survival, and asked the City to suspend works.

At a press briefing on 10 August 2026, Thierry Meeûs, the park's founder, set out the complaint. The Brussels Times summed it up: the sports facilities would, in their current form, completely surround the site, block deliveries, complicate routes for people with reduced mobility and disrupt group arrivals. He also warned that losing coach parking would hurt the Atomium as much as Mini-Europe. "This is no small matter for us," he said.

The park asked for three things, per BX1: a full review of mobility and parking on the site, a joint table with every Heysel operator, from Kinepolis to the Planetarium, and a pause in the works until both exist. It told Neo SRL, the company running the project, that it would go to court if construction began. Neither article carried a reply from the City.

Did the Sports Park works start anyway?

Yes. The Region and the City approved the next phase in July, and preparatory works began in September 2026.

NEO's own site announced a green light on 16 July 2026 and the start of preparatory works in September. The park goes between Avenue Houba de Strooper and Boulevard du Centenaire: an eight-lane 400-metre track, a hybrid rugby and football pitch, hockey, a water play area and a new home for the Belgian Olympic Committee. It is also part of Belgium's bid for the 2030 European Athletics Championships, which explains the speed.

L'Avenir reported on 17 September that the works are expected to last about four years. Mini-Europe said it is not trying to stop them but keeps the option of legal action. Its figures: around 15% of visitors arrive by coach, the 15-space coach park about 300 metres away is to go, and the walk from coach parking could grow to about 1.5 km. The mayor's office answered that "on trouve toujours des solutions" (there are always solutions). No replacement coach site has been named.

What should visitors know right now?

The park is open as normal; arrive by metro, expect building sites around Heysel, and buy a ticket you can cancel.

Nothing announced so far closes Mini-Europe or the Atomium. The changes fall on cars and coaches first. If you come by public transport, metro line 6 to Heysel leaves you a few minutes' walk from the entrance at Bruparck, and none of the published works touch that route. Details are in our guide to getting to Mini-Europe.

Groups arriving by coach should ask their operator where the drop-off is this season, and anyone with reduced mobility should call the park before travelling. For individual visitors, the practical hedge is the one we give for the weather: the official Mini-Europe ticket on GetYourGuide cancels free up to 24 hours ahead, while tickets from the park's own site do not. And if the park's future worries you, go in 2026 or 2027. It has been here since 1989, and the plan says it stays.

The park's own ticket with free cancellation up to 24 hours before, sold on GetYourGuide. Under 115 cm go in free.

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