Legal row looms over number of Strasbourg sessions

Date: 17/04/03

By Martin Banks

THE European Parliament and the member states are on a collision course over plans to cut the number of times the assembly meets in Strasbourg.

It comes after MEPs voted on Thursday 10 April to reduce the number of plenary sessions it will hold in the Alsace city next year from 12 to ten. The decision - adopted with 266 votes in favour and 260 against - has incensed the French government which is considering legal moves against Parliament.

Pat Cox, the institution's president, warned that the vote poses a major legal headache, as the assembly is required to meet at least a dozen times in Strasbourg under the Amsterdam Treaty.

And a spokesman for the French said it was not prepared to yield to increasing pressure to move the Parliament full time to Brussels.

Under a deal struck by EU governments, MEPs and their staff move to Strasbourg one week in every four.

European Commission figures illustrate the huge cost of the split-site arrangement. It costs more than €2 million per year to move commissioners to Strasbourg for the monthly meetings, while Parliament spends €169m each year to keep on the move - a figure that will rise to €203m, when the EU expands next year. That will amount to 16 of the Parliament's budget.

It is the second time during the current legislature that the position of Strasbourg has been weakened. In 2000, MEPs voted to scrap Friday meetings in the city, which had become notorious for their low attendance rates.

Cox has now called on Parliament's political group leaders to come up with proposals to resolve the impasse.

His spokesman, David Harley, said: "The treaty is very clear in stating that 12 sessions must be held in Strasbourg each year.

"The European Parliament elections next year would reduce this to 11 - and the French were expected to tolerate this. But when the number of sessions falls below this figure it creates a major legal problem."

The European Parliament and the Member States are on a collision course over plans to cut the number of times the assembly meets in Strasbourg after MEPs voted on 10 April 2003 to reduce the number of plenary sessions it will hold in the Alsace city next year from 12 to ten. The decision has incensed the French government which is considering legal moves against Parliament.