Acties van europarlementariërs voor definitief vertrek EP uit Straatsburg (en)

EUOBSERVER / STRASBOURG - Some MEPs have resumed their calls to scrap the Strasbourg seat of the European Parliament.

This week's historic visit of the US President to the EU institutions in Brussels has brought the issue under the spotlight once again as MEPs gathered for a regular session in Strasbourg, starting on Monday (21 February).

Hans-Gert Poettering, leader of the European people's party (EPP-ED), welcomed the initiative by the Luxembourg presidency to invite the Parliament's president for a meeting with the European leaders and their US guest back in Brussels.

Speaking to journalists on Tuesday (22 February), Mr Poettering admitted that there had also been attempts to have George W. Bush addressing the MEPs in their plenary.

If realised, Mr Bush would have followed the footseps of his predecessor, Ronald Reagan, who made his way to Strasbourg to talk to the European parliamentarians in May 1985.

"Back in 2002, the US president liked the idea. But there were several problems ahead of this week's visit. And one of them was that it could not be assured that there wouldn't be a demonstration among the MEPs against Mr Bush", said Mr Poettering.

According to Dutch MEP Jan Marinus Wiersma i, the Vice-president of the European Socialists (PSE), the logistics might also have played a role.

"Of course, we can clearly see that President Bush didn't want to overdo this EU context. Instead, he tried hard to divide his attention carefully between the EU and NATO. In fact, we've noticed that he only used the term "EU" once in his speech. But it is true that even if he had considered a speech before MEPs, the fact that they were sitting in Strasbourg at the moment, would not have helped".

No need for two seats

The French seat of the European Parliament has already seen several motions to have it scrapped, mainly by MEPs themselves.

The German liberals took the latest initiative, as they organised a demonstration ahead of the session in Strasbourg today.

Alexander Alvaro, a liberal MEP, said that there is growing support among the dignitaries for a complex reform of the Parliament, in a bid to make it "more efficient, transparent and accountable".

Campaign for Parliament's reform, a cross-party platform of 130 MEPs, argues that the "travelling circus" - changing places between Strasbourg and Brussels for four days a month - costs the EU taxpayers around 4 million euro per week.

The total cost of maintaining three places of work (including Luxembourg as the European Parliament's administrative seat) adds up to 200 million euro per year after the 2004 enlargement.

However, many remain sceptical about the chances for change.

"Me and some of my colleagues have already supported calls for action against the Strasbourg seat many times: it is very inefficient to keep moving like this. But when it comes to decisions, France will never say yes and it is up to member states to decide unanimously - which alone is quite strange, as the European Parliament cannot decide about its own seat", Jans Marinus Wiersma said to the EUobserver.

The provisions on the seats of the EU institutions have been re-confirmed in a protocol attached to the European Constitution, which is now up for ratification in the 25 member states. Unanimous approval of all the member states is required to make any change.