Friday

29th Mar 2024

EU summit opens with silence on Strasbourg folly

Thursday's EU summit opened with silence on a subject dear to the 568,000 Europeans who recently signed a petition for the European Parliament to drop its €200 million a year second home in Strasbourg.

Parliament president Josep Borrell had planned to speak up on Strasbourg in his keynote speech to EU leaders, but cut the point the week before, after Austrian chancellor Wolfgang Schussel told him to.

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

  • Josep Borrell "quite likes going to Strasbourg" (Photo: European Parliament)

"Consultations with member states - in particular with France, the host state - made clear the issue is not one the council should be considering," Mr Schussel's letter stated.

The Austrian "nein" was also good enough for socialist MEP leader Martin Schulz - the champion of the anti-Strasbourg campaign in recent weeks - to drop the issue without complaint.

Mr Schulz' office told EUobserver he got what he wanted - to show that the Strasbourg folly is the fault of member states, not MEPs, with any move needing EU 25 consensus on a treaty change.

"In this sense, it was a success," his spokesman said, adding that - to the best of his knowledge - Mr Schulz has not himself signed the "populist absurdity" of the anti-Strasbourg oneseat.eu petition.

The petition, pressing for just one parliament seat in Brussels, has gathered over 568,000 signatures in one month, fuelled by recent revelations that Strasbourg overcharges the EU by millions on rent.

The parliament's Liberal group indicated Mr Schulz' push was "never a real campaign" so much as a stunt designed to get British socialist anti-Strasbourg MEPs, such as Gary Titley, off his back.

President Borrell's emotional attachment to his original anti-Strasbourg speech could also be questioned. "He quite likes going to Strasbourg, actually," his spokeswoman indicated.

"The issue is not dead but it's definitely closed for the moment," she added.

If the two MEP leaders never really believed they would get Strasbourg on the summit agenda, then it is equally true most EU prime ministers don't care about the topic.

Vague statements that the EU should be "more efficient" or "parliament should be in one place" had to be pulled through the teeth of the Dutch and Danish leaders by press in the summit run-up.

"No. No. No one really talks about this in Portugal. I think it is only exciting for you journalists," Portuguese prime minister Jose Socrates told EUobserver.

"What if they do have 500,000 signatures? You have 500 million people in the EU so I don't think France is that scared," one EU diplomat said. "It's a Don Quixote thing."

And so the Spanish president of the European Parliament instead took the line of Sancho Panza - the pragmatic squire to Don Quixote's idealistic knight in the old comic novel.

His speech before EU leaders was a dutiful run-through of parliament's official recommendations on the constitution - they want a new treaty by 2009 - and enlargement - a good thing that requires a new treaty.

"Each time difficulties arose, we drew on our shared beliefs for the imagination needed to overcome them," he concluded, quoting EU founding father Paul-Henri Spaak in a conciliatory vein.

One million EU citizens call for labelling of GM foods

A Greenpeace petition - signed by 1 million EU citizens - calls for the European Commission to legislate that food products such as eggs, meat and milk where the animal has been fed with genetically modified crops should be labelled as such.

Ukraine slams grain trade restrictions at EU summit

Restrictions on Ukrainian agricultural exports to the EU could translate into military losses in their bid to stop Russia's war, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky warned EU leaders during their summit in Brussels on Thursday.

Difficult talks ahead on financing new EU defence spending

With the war in Ukraine showing no signs of ending any time soon, EU leaders will meet in Brussels on Thursday and Friday (21 and 22 March) to discuss how to boost the defence capabilities of Ukraine and of the bloc itself.

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