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Post an EU jobEuropean Parliament President Jerzy Buzek is a passionate defender of the European Parliament's Strasbourg seat, Belgian daily La Libre Belgique reported last week.
According to a decision taken in 1992 at the Edinburgh European Council, Strasbourg is an official seat of the European Parliament: 12 four-day plenary sessions per year should take place there. Any decision to change this would require an amendment to the EU Treaties, a process which requires unanimity between all EU member states.
The European Parliament also has a third place of work in Luxembourg, where its administrative offices (the General Secretariat) are located. The EU assembly held a few plenary sessions in Luxembourg between 1967 and 1981.
The value of the double-seat is often questioned, mostly due to the issue of costs. According to opponents, the EU's "travelling circus" costs taxpayers an estimated €200 million per year.
Buzek's move to back Stasbourg breaks with tradition, which sees Parliament presidents refuse to take sides over repeated calls for the EU assembly to have one seat, ending the 'travelling circus' between Brussels and Strasbourg. Parliament presidents as a rule refer to the decision laid down in a 1992 summit agreement to hold most of the EU assembly's plenary sessions in Strasbourg, confirmed by the 1997 Amsterdam Treaty.
Buzek said its location on the Franco-German border makes Strasbourg the European Union in miniature, "a symbolic city" of post-war reconciliation between France and Germany, and thus a home of European integration.
However, the president admitted that his personal views about the added value of the Strasbourg seat was "certainly not shared" by many of his colleagues.
Indeed, many MEPs would like to put an end to shuttling between two offices. They insist that all plenary sessions must be held in the Belgian capital, where MEPs spend most of their time, as committee meetings and meetings of political groups take place in Brussels.
A petition, launched in May 2006, was handed to the Commission on 21 September that year by a group of parliamentarians led by Swedish EU Affairs Minister Cecilia Malmström in her former capacity as an MEP. It reached the symbolic one-million signature mark in November 2006 (EurActiv 20/04/07), while yesterday (26 October), the 'One Seat' website indicated 1,265,232 signatures.
Within the Parliament, however, the 'One Seat' campaign has only attracted 286 signatures (EurActiv 27/01/09).
France is strongly opposed to opening a debate on the issue, and Roland Ries, mayor of Strasbourg, welcomed Buzek's kind words about his city's seat.
"[Buzek] underlined the coherence and the modernity of the presence of the European Parliament in Strasbourg," he said. "A European capital of democracy, human rights and citizens, Strasbourg is perfectly complementary to the two other capitals of the European Union: Brussels and Luxembourg," he added.
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