Mayor to provide all rental documents

By Simon Taylor

Date: 04/05/06

Strasbourg Mayor Fabienne Keller has promised to provide MEPs with all documents concerning the city's hidden rental deal on the European Parliament's buildings when she appears before them on 16 May.

MEPs from the budgets and budgetary control committee are to agree today (4 May) to hold a hearing with Keller this month. The mayor pledged "total transparency" and said she would give the chairmen of the two committees "all documents and supporting papers".

The city has been under fire from MEPs since early April after it emerged that Strasbourg had been receiving around 20% of the annual EUR 10.5 million rent the Parliament pays for renting two buildings in the Alsatian capital. The skim-off on the rent, which was unknown to MEPs, could have been going on since 1979.

The Parliament has suspended plans to buy the buildings for EUR 136m but is continuing to negotiate with the owner, Dutch property fund SCI-Erasme, on a purchase price of EUR 107m.

MEPs have demanded complete transparency from the city of Strasbourg in the affair. But French Green MEP and Parliament Vice-President Gérard Onesta said last week that the city had refused to provide the relevant documents in a meeting with the Parliament on 4 April.

Strasbourg had argued that it was justified in receiving part of the rent plus a EUR 29m share of the purchase price because of costs it has incurred. These included renovation works and insurance against the Parliament quitting the buildings. But Onesta said the risk of Parliament leaving Strasbourg was "minimal" after the Edinburgh summit in 1992 which confirmed that Strasbourg was the seat of the Parliament. Keller said in a statement that the city had the right to a "return" from the buildings and an "incontestable legal claim on the sale price" because it holds the lease on the site until 2047.

Last week the Parliament's bureau, which is responsible for administrative affairs, agreed that President Josep Borrell would write to French President Dominique de Villepin to help to find a solution.

In a dispute over an alleged hidden rental deal on the European Parliament's building in Strasbourg the city's Mayor, Fabienne Keller, promised to provide MEPs with all relevant documents when she appears before them on 16 May 2006.

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