EURO MP PRESSES SARKOZY ABOUT STRASBOURG 'TRAVELLING CIRCUS'
November 13, 2007 12:00 AM
West Midlands MEP Liz Lynne today signed a letter calling on French President Nicholas Sarkozy to review the position of Strasbourg as the second seat of the European Parliament. The letter comes as the President visits the parliament today to outline his vision for the future of Europe.
Speaking today from Strasbourg, Liz said:
"Over £130 million each year is spent purely on moving 785 MEPs, their staff and trunks of documents between Strasbourg and Brussels and I took the opportunity to remind the President of this.
"It is ludicrous that we have two separate places to meet when we have a perfectly good parliament building in Brussels at the heart of the European institutions. Not only is it a total waste of taxpayers' money, but the travelling involved cause's large amounts of unnecessary carbon emissions.
"The Strasbourg buck stops with national governments who should have done more in the past to amend this anomaly. They bear ultimate responsibility for this needless cost and waste. I hope that the French government will take notice of Europe's elected representatives and negotiate a reform process acceptable to all member-states."
ENDS
Notes to editors:
The Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament have long called for a single seat for the European Parliament in Brussels.
The European Parliament (EP) is the only parliament in the world that has more than one official seat. It is divided between Strasbourg, Luxembourg and Brussels with Strasbourg as its official meeting place. Unfortunately, the EP is also the only parliament in the world that does not have the right to decide upon the location of its seat. This right is exclusively reserved for European Heads of State and Government who can only revise their decision by unanimity.
In a survey of MEPs during the summer, a majority of those who voted wanted an end to the Strasbourg Parliament in favour of a single seat. The survey was organised by the Campaign for Parliament Reform (CPR) the international, cross-party grouping, of which Liz Lynne is a member, The CPR also organised last year's www.oneseat.eu petition that over 1.1 million Europeans have signed.
Of the 39% of MEPs who participated, 89% voted in favour of a fixed parliament and 81% wanted the permanent seat to be in Brussels. In addition, 84% felt the Parliament itself should have the right to decide its location.
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