EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton is keen to house her new diplomatic corps in the so-called Lex building on Rue de la Loi in the EU quarter in Brussels.

The change of mind comes after months of talks with Belgium’s Axa insurance group on the potential lease of its Triangle building, a few hundred metres up the road from Lex on the Schuman roundabout.

Lex would be much cheaper than the €10-million-a-year Axa deal because the EU Council effectively owns the block and could lease it to the European External Action Service (EEAS) on sweetheart terms, a contact in the EU institutions said. Lex also has higher security specifications than the Triangle, the contact added.

The current home of the European Commission’s foreign relations department (Relex), the Charlemagne building on Rue de la Loi, has been discarded as an option partly for image reasons.

“People would see it [the EEAS] as a kind of Relex-plus. But it’s a unique, stand-alone institution,” the contact said.

Time is ticking for Ms Ashton’s self-imposed deadline to get the EEAS up and running by 1 December.

The Axa negotiators received the surprise news just last Thursday (16 September) at an advanced stage in the negotiations. And it is unclear whether senior EU Council management will back the Lex idea.