Fight to ditch Strasbourg steps up a gear

Date: 28/05/03

By Martin Banks

MEPS will next week step up their campaign to end the European Parliament's "ludicrous" split-site arrangement between Brussels and Strasbourg.

They will ask members to sign a petition calling for the Alsace city to be ditched as a formal seat and for all future Parliamentary meetings to be held in Brussels, where MEPs spend most of their time.

Strasbourg was made the official seat of the Parliament in a protocol to the 1997 Amsterdam Treaty, following a deal by EU leaders at the Edinburgh summit five years earlier. Only member states have the power to change that situation at an intergovernmental conference (IGC). The next IGC is due to take place this autumn.

Any such change would require unanimous backing from member states. The French government has, so far, shown no such inclination.

In a bid to combat criticism of the twin-site set-up, the civic authorities in Strasbourg recently launched a publicity campaign, particularly aimed at convincing future MEPs from accession states of the viability of the arrangement.

Petition

The charm offensive comes amid mounting disquiet about the expense involved in shuttling members, commissioners and thousands of staff between the two cities.

The Parliament spends €169 million a year to keep on the move - a figure that will rise to €203m when the EU expands next year. It costs a further €2m a year for commissioners to attend the monthly sessions.

This has prompted some MEPs to launch a petition next Monday (2 June) calling on the Convention on Europe's future to allow Parliament to decide the location of its seat.

One of the organizers of the petition, Dutch Socialist Michiel van Hulten, said that if members themselves were allowed to determine where they meet, the majority would opt for Brussels.

He said: "Most of our work is carried out in Brussels which is where all principal EU institutions are based.

"The monthly trek to Strasbourg is not just cumbersome and costly, it also undermines our ability to work effectively.

"The French government argues that Strasbourg is the symbol of Franco-German reconciliation and that MEPs must continue to meet there. But to post-war generations it has become a symbol of waste and inefficiency - one that is eagerly used by Eurosceptics everywhere to make their case against European integration."

Van Hulten added: "The Convention is a unique opportunity to end the present stalemate by giving Parliament the right to determine its own arrangements. The French would do Europe a huge favour by seizing that opportunity."

A petition to remove Strasbourg as an official seat of the European Parliament is expected to be circulated amongst MEPs in June 2003.