Vice President Biden spent about a day and a half in Belgium in early February to meet with various European leaders, but his entourage, security team and other delegation members required up to 209 rooms for up to three weeks surrounding the visit. While the estimated tab was $690,507, this cost was less than half of the cost of a pair of stays in Belgium by President Obama in 2014 which both came in at $1.5 million.
Both the president and the vice president stayed at The Hotel, a twenty-seven story hotel in downtown Brussels. The documents show that offices and conference rooms were reserved as well as the 209 lodging rooms:
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While in the country, Biden’s entourage and other support personnel required up to 54 vehicles (which typically includes drivers) at a total estimated cost of $372,476:
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Biden was in Belgium to meet with European leaders to discuss, according to NATO, the “conflict between Russia and Ukraine; energy security; the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) and policies to promote economic growth; counterterrorism cooperation and countering violent extremism; as well as other global issues.”
After leaving Belgium, the vice president travelled to Munich, Germany to attend the Munich Security Conference where he spoke on “European and global security challenges.” The conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the fight against the Islamic State (ISIL) in Syria and Iraq seemed to be the dominant issues in both the Belgian and German legs of the vice president’s trip.
Contracts for hotel and vehicles for the Munich visit have not yet been posted by the State Department.
