By Richard Ashworth MEP is the UK conservative group budget spokesman - 31st May 2006
Parliament's Strasbourg seat is no longer a symbol of unity, but a wedge dividing Europe, writes Richard Ashworth MEP.
Almost 66 years ago, in June 1940, German troops stormed the French city of Strasbourg. This was not the first time this Alsatian city had changed hands.
It belonged to the German empire until World War One, before being returned to French control in 1918.
Following World War II, French foreign secretary Robert Schuman and German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer - with the encouragement of the UK and US - drew up a plan to reunite Europe.
It's no wonder then that they chose this symbol of Franco-German territorial struggle as the location for a parliament of Europe to be located.
Today, the European parliament in Strasbourg is the official seat of MEPs and the Amsterdam treaty obliges us to meet there twelve times a year.
But for many years now the parliament has found a new home in Brussels. Our staff, their families and homes, paperwork - everything - is based there.
Brussels is readily accessible, large enough to accommodate us effortlessly and close to the other main European institutions.
Yet for four days every month, the entire operation uproots and relocates 400 kilometres away.
A fleet of lorries carry crates of paperwork; assistants leave Brussels at 6am to catch the agonisingly indirect train, Eurocrats fly down in a fleet of chartered planes and hundreds of MEPs from across Europe use dozens of different routes to criss-cross the continent.
Strasbourg is a truly lovely city, well worthy of a visit. But not every month. MEPs despair of the monthly ritual and take every opportunity to register their disapproval of the sheer waste of money, time and effort.
Nobody knows exactly how much the jaunt costs but a low-balled estimate is around €200m. I can think of 200 million better things to spend taxpayer's money on than that.
But that's my dilemma; it is not our decision to make. Because Strasbourg is enshrined in the Amsterdam treaty, it can only be overturned if every EU head of government agrees.
And there are no prizes for guessing which president has been blocking our efforts so far!
So will it ever change? Sooner or later it must. Strasbourg was the ideal symbol of European rapprochement after the ravages of the war.
But now, in the 21st century, life has moved on and, rather than being a representation of European unity, it has become a wedge that divides us.
A proposal to turn the building into a university is being mooted and I would urge the heads of government to look to the future needs of the EU and give this serious consideration.
Strasbourg can still be a symbol of Europe - but it should be a symbol of our drive for education and research, rather than an emblem of an EU that lets nostalgia get in the way of progress.
If you agree with me, please go to the oneseat website and sign the petition. Only with your help can we convince European leaders to release the potential that the Strasbourg parliament has.
Have your say...
Please enter your comments below.