Friday

29th Mar 2024

MEPs tell Buzek to seek end to Strasbourg seat

  • Strasbourg interior: MEPs have lined up against the 'travelling circus' (Photo: EUobserver)

MEPs have called for a meeting with EU leaders to discuss the scrapping of the European Parliament's Strasbourg and Luxembourg seats, also opting to delay their approval of the Council of Ministers' 2009 budget until later this year.

If backed by the full complement of euro-deputies, the decisions by members of parliament's budgetary control committee this week (21-22 March) are likely to further inflame tensions with member states, with France typically taking a dim view of MEP calls to axe monthly trips to the northern French city.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

Parliament's approval - or discharge - of the Council's annual budget has traditionally been underpinned by a gentleman's agreement of limited scrutiny, but last year MEPs opted to take a closer look.

That failed to improve the situation this year however, say MEPs.

"We asked the Council questions but they didn't answer. We asked for documents and they sent them late. They refused to come to our meetings," German centre-right MEP Ingeborg Grassle, a member of the budgetary control committee, told this website.

"If you told me last year that we would have had the same problems again I wouldn't have believed it," she added. "We won't give up. There can't be a gentleman's agreement, in Germany this would be unthinkable."

"Parliament is the discharge authority. This drives right to the heart of what democracy is about. This is not the member states' role."

The parliamentary committee will return to matter this autumn, with approval also delayed for the European Economic and Social Committee, the European Police College, the European Medicines Agency and the European Atomic Energy Community.

Under the current system, MEPs also have to sign off on their own accounts. Discussing the matter on Tuesday, members of the budgetary control committee called for a number of improvements in parliament's future expenditure, conscious that member states are implementing a raft of unpopular spending cuts across Europe.

Finnish centre-right MEP Ville Itala was the draftsman, or rapporteur, of the parliament's 2009 discharge report. "There was a good atmosphere this year. The rapporteur and shadow rapporteurs were all Nordic, ie above the garlic line," said one parliamentary official working on the topic, suggesting that countries situated at latitudes above Brussels were likely to be more transparent and reformist.

One amendment calls on European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek to seek a solution to the legislature's current three-seat situation, over which member states have control under EU treaties.

"[The committee] stresses that real savings could be achieved if parliament only had one workplace in the same location as the other Union institutions ... [and] calls on the President of the European Parliament ... to suggest to the European Council [of EU leaders] that they make it possible for the Union to make these savings," says the final report.

A study by parliament's secretary-general has estimated that €160 million could be saved in 2011 if parliament only had one seat.

Itala's discharge report "deplored" the fact that some MEPs are still entitled to hire family members under a special derogation, also requesting "the secretary general to consider whether there should be specific rules preventing members employing each others family members".

The MEPs asked parliament's top administrative official to see whether MEP air miles could be returned to the legislature in order to reduce the cost of future flights, calling for a carbon offsetting programme to reduce the parliament's carbon footprint.

Tensions are also simmering over plans to build a House of European History for those visiting Brussels. "It's a brilliant idea in itself but MEPs begrudge the unilateral decision-making by parliament's bureau on the subject," said the parliamentary source.

The museum on European and EU history is set to be housed in parliament's Eastman building on the edge of Park Leopold, but MEPs have raised concerns over its potential costs and parking facilities.

The full plenary of MEPs will vote on the 2009 parliamentary discharge report in May.

Watch the British MEP Ashley Fox chat to the EUobserver about his efforts to put an end to the European Parliament's monthly commute to Strasbourg.

EU court backs France over €200m Strasbourg sessions

The European Court of Justice has backed the French government in its dispute with the European Parliament over the much maligned Strasbourg plenary sessions, ruling that the assembly had breached treaty requirements for twelve plenary sessions per year.

Analysis

When two become one - the Strasbourg super-session

Thousands of EU officials will return to Brussels wearier than usual on Friday but, on balance, will probably be grateful for a Parliament decision that saved them from another round-trip.

Opinion

Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Rather than assuming a pro-European Labour government in London will automatically open doors in Brussels, the Labour party needs to consider what it may be able to offer to incentivise EU leaders to factor the UK into their defence thinking.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us