By Martin Banks - 10th February 2011
The two-seat arrangement is an anachronism
Edward McMillan-Scott
A major new report has condemned parliament's single seat arrangement, calling it "wasteful and bad" for the environment and health of staff.
The 50-page report, published in parliament on Thursday, says the monthly commute to Strasbourg, the so-called "travelling circus", calls for MEPs to mobilise support for a treaty change.
This, it says, would enable the 30-year arrangement to be scrapped so that parliament has just one seat, Brussels.
The report, "A Tale of Two Cities," was commissioned by UK Independent deputy Edward McMillan-Scott and compiled by former Dutch MEP Michiel Van Hulten, now an independent Brussels-based consultant.
Van Hulten conducted a series of interviews with staff and MEPs last year and said that 90 per cent find the trek between the two cities "intolerable".
He said scrapping the Strasbourg seat would put a stop to "profiteering" by hotels in the city who, he said, increase prices by at least 50 per cent during the four days parliament is there.
McMillan-Scott told a news conference the report highlights the "social and health costs" of the split-seat arrangement, an area he said which had not yet been discussed.
He said that many of the parliamentary staff who regularly travel to Strasbourg each month complained of "stress-related" illnesses.
Many of the survey respondents cited "enormous expense, emotional and physical stress as well as numerous logistical and technical problems" in getting to and from Strasbourg each month.
Dubbing Strasbourg as 'stressbourg' he said, "Parliament's leadership cannot ignore the findings on health. Parliament has a duty to its staff and the regular commute is clearly taking its toll on the health of employees."
The report argues that if there were a single seat in Brussels, €180m would be saved annually, 317 full-time staff posts could be abolished and 19,000 tonnes of CO2 would be saved every year.
Some €4m spent annually on cleaning costs at the sprawling Strasbourg parliament would also be saved if it moved to Brussels full-time.
A separate online study by Zurich University, whose findings were published at the same time, found that 40 per cent of respondents say Strasbourg's poor transport - only six EU capitals have direct flights to the city - accommodation have a serious impact on the work and life of parliamentary staff.
McMillan-Scott, a vice-president of parliament who heads a cross-party group of MEPs looking at all aspects of the arrangement, said, "The parliament serves 500 million people. In today's climate, the economic and environmental cost of two seats can no longer be justified.
"The two-seat arrangement is an anachronism. MEPs not only should have, but clearly want, the right to choose where they work. Despite controversy, there's been official parliamentary reports or debates on this for over 18 years. It is time to place some objective facts on the table."
German ALDE deputy Alexander Alvaro, whose "one seat" petition was signed by more than one million people, agreed, saying, "MEPs -not member states - should have the right to choose where and when they meet."
