CoR hit by exclusion from Parliament

By Martin Banks

Date: 24/06/04

THE Committee of the Regions (CoR) has accused the European Parliament of making the institution homeless, after the assembly refused to allow the CoR to continue holding its plenary sessions in the hemicycle.

The Committee's plenary meetings, held five times per year, take place in Brussels when MEPs meet in Strasbourg. But the assembly's outgoing President Pat Cox has written to the CoR saying the Parliament's bureau, composed of the president and 14 vice-presidents, has decided it can no longer meet in its building.

CoR President Peter Straub said the Committee was "mystified" over why it will no longer be able to use the hemicycle for meetings of its 317 members even though it will be empty during the Parliament's Strasbourg weeks.

The CoR has agreed with the European Commission to hold its next plenary, on 29-30 September, at the executive's Charlemagne building on Brussels' rue de la Loi.

"This is a one-off though, and, after the September session, the Committee will have nowhere to hold its plenary sessions," said a CoR spokesman.

The CoR is now scrambling to find a venue for its 17-18 November plenary, which will mark its tenth anniversary.

The 200-strong secretariat of the Committee this week moved to new premises at 101 rue Belliard in Brussels, which it will share with the Economic and Social Committee. Between them, the two institutions have spent €26 million (€13m each) refurbishing the building, formerly used by the European Parliament, now leased from a Belgian real estate company.

But the building does not have any meeting rooms big enough to accommodate the CoR's membership which has expanded after EU enlargement.

One CoR insider said: "There is absolutely no reason why the CoR can't continue to meet at the Parliament. Surely it is better to use the building than have it standing idle. Unlike the Parliament, virtually all our members turn up for plenary sessions."

For many years, the European Parliament used to borrow the building of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg for its plenary sessions, having outgrown its first home in Luxembourg. Parliament spokesman David Harley pointed out that the assembly "is under no legal obligation to allow the CoR to use its premises and, rather than complaining, maybe the Committee should be grateful that it has been able to use the building as long as it has".

The European Parliament has told the Committee of the Regions it can no longer use its Brussels hemicycle for its plenary sessions.