Jacques goes CAP in hand

Date: 11/04/1996

Buried in Jacques Santer's noble plans for redirecting Common Agricultural Policy savings to worthy causes is the tidy sum of 100 million ecu intended to help pay for the European Parliament's extensive building programme.

Assuming Santer can win over those member states opposed to his package of job-creating measures, with cash for TENs, SMEs and R&D, the transfer of funds would also ensure that the Parliament can maintain its buildings policy for the next ten years.

But the current controversy over how the money should be used has already run into a few snags. Failure to get agreement would be a shame for the Parliament, especially as it was those same governments which put MEPs on the spot by confirming Strasbourg as the permanent seat of the Parliament when work was already well underway on the Espace Leopold complex in Brussels, providing enough office space to cater for the MEPs' every need.