Paris heads for court to defend Strasbourg seat

Date: 02/11/1995

By Fiona McHugh

A SHOWDOWN over where MEPs are to do their work in 1996 now looks inevitable, following France's decision to challenge plans to cut the number of plenary sessions held in Strasbourg in court.

French European Affairs Minister Michel Barnier told his counterparts in Luxembourg this week that Paris had decided to go to the European Court of Justice to defend its right to host at least 12 parliamentary sessions a year as laid down in the 1992 Edinburgh Agreement on the seat of the institution.

“France is going to be extremely vigorous about this. We want confirmation of Strasbourg's unassailable position as a seat of the Parliament from the European Court,” said a French spokesman.

But Parliament officials say France is over-reacting, pointing out that the assembly has defied the agreement before.

“The Parliament has changed the calendar before. Last year we held only 10 sessions and in 1993 only 11. I do not see why this time is so special,” said an aide to Parliament President Klaus Hänsch.

But Belgian Socialist Raymonde Dury welcomed France's decision, saying it might affirm the assembly's right to decide where it wants work. “It is good because it will at least clarify things. It is important to confirm the principle that the European Parliament is the master of its own internal procedures. The European Parliament is the only parliament in the world not able to determine where it sits.”

The latest round in a long-running battle over the institution was sparked by a decision taken by MEPs last month to reduce the number of sessions to be held in the French border city from 12 to 11 next year.

The two litigants may be joined in court by a third, Luxembourg, which has also threatened legal action over plans to move 100 staff from the Grand Duchy to Parliament's headquarters in Brussels. Both France and Luxembourg see these moves as part of a plot to move the Parliament to Belgium.

Since 1992, those in favour of moving the assembly's French and Luxembourg homes to Brussels have been conducting what their opponents call a 'war of attrition', shifting the site of parliamentary work incrementally.

Critics of the Edinburgh Agreement claim that shuttling between Brussels and Strasbourg costs the Parliament around 125 million ecu each year.