MEP seeks solution to Strasbourg crisis
Labour's Deputy Euro leader has offered France a "credible alternative" today if the French agree to relinquish the European Parliament's seat in Strasbourg .
Richard Corbett MEP has tabled a parliamentary resolution calling on the European Council to name Brussels as the European Parliament's only seat and arrange for the European Council regular summit meetings to be held in Strasbourg .
He said: "There is now a crescendo in this debate but we know that the French have a veto that they will use to block any proposed change to the Strasbourg arrangement. We should not just put pressure on France - we need to offer them a realistic alternative. Strasbourg playing host to the European Council is a proposal that might just tempt the French into parliamentary reform.
"The Commission, Council and Parliament should be in same location because they interact daily but the European summits should have some distance from the daily work of the EU."
The Mayor of Strasbourg will attend a meeting of the European Parliament's budget control committee tonight to investigate financial irregularities in the payment of rent on the Strasbourg buildings.
The cost of the monthly parliamentary sitting in Strasbourg is £200 million a year.
The arrangement for the European Parliament to sit in Strasbourg 12 times a year is an obligation in the European treaties. John Major made it binding at the European Summit in Edinburgh in 1992. The European Parliament does not have the power to decide to abandon Strasbourg - it must be a decided by a unanimous vote in the European Council.
The text of Richard Corbett's motion for resolution:
Motion for a European Parliament resolution on European Parliament sessions in Brussels and European Council meetings in Strasbourg
The European Parliament ,
- having regard to Rule 113 of its Rules of Procedure,
A. whereas Parliament works three weeks out of four in Brussels, where it has all the necessary facilities and where the Commission and the Council, with which Parliament interacts daily, are also located,
B. whereas the monthly trip to Strasbourg is perceived as a considerable waste by public opinion, causing damage to the reputation of the European Union, and is increasingly problematic for Parliament, other institutions, embassies, NGOs and journalists who all incur cost and inconvenience,
C. whereas the decision on the seat lies with the Member States,
D. whereas the European Council is the strategic policy-making body of the EU and does not interact daily and continuously with the other institutions; whereas it is therefore appropriate that it should have a certain distance from the day-to-day procedures of the Union,
E. whereas the European Council could meet in Strasbourg , which would confer just as much prestige and other benefits on Strasbourg , and compensate it for the loss of Parliament sittings,
F. whereas the Parliament building in Strasbourg can be easily adapted and already contains the necessary press and security facilities,
1. Calls for the next IGC to attribute the sessions of the European Parliament to Brussels and the European Council to Strasbourg .
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