By Martin Banks - 15th January 2009
Strasbourg is the symbol of a reconciliation between two countries
Strasbourg mayor official
The Strasbourg mayor’s office has made a robust defence of the Alsatian city’s hosting of the European parliament.
The move came as a parliamentary campaign aimed at scrapping Strasbourg as an official seat of parliament was set to end in failure.
By midday on Thursday, only 268 of the assembly’s 785 MEPs had signed a written declaration calling for the seat to be axed.
It is well short of the target of 393 MEPs needed for it to have a chance of becoming EU policy.
Critics say moving 785 MEPs and their staff between Brussels and Strasbourg each month is expensive and bad for the environment.
However, supporters of the Strasbourg base say the city is symbolically important, sitting on the border of former European foes, France and Germany
A spokeswoman for Strasbourg mayor Roland Ries defended the city continuing to host the monthly meeting.
“The seat in Strasbourg is not only the symbol of a reconciliation between two countries - it is also important for all European democratic and transnational institutions like the parliament and the council of Europe to be based in the same place, as it is the case with Strasbourg”, said the spokeswoman.
“Moreover, there is absolutely no reason to believe that problems linked with the dispersal of working places within three different cities would be solved by a transfer of all activities to Brussels alone.
“Because Strasbourg is the official seat of the European parliament, the institutional logic should be that other activities taking place outside the seat should be moved back there and not the opposite."
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