What does Belgium's capital has to do with this?
Do you imply Brussels = European Union?
replyBrussels = location of EU headquarters, and in common lingo Brussels thus means "People running the EU and deciding things on everyone's behalf."
replyIt is called a metonymy where you substitute a name that is associated to some other thing instead of mentionning that thing.
replySome examples: Wall Street = NY Stock Exchange the White House = US president and his cabinet the Pentagon = US Dept of Defense Downing Street = UK prime minister
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy Scotland Yard = Greater London Metropolitan Police Tehran = Government/officials of the islamic republic of Iran
>It is called a metonymy
replyor called synecdoche (square/rectangle)
As a person who lived for a long time in a political capital I was so frustrated with news articles titled like this.
reply"[City] decides [XYZ stupid thing]!!!"
No! We in the city didn't decide it - our responsibility is limited to our political representative. Everyone else voted in idiots and sent them here to decide idiot things!
"Brussels" is often used to mean the entire blob of EU and related institutions.
replyExactly, it's just like people saying Washington to refer to the US government, or Beijing to refer to Chinese government.
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