200 Members call for debate on EP seat by the IGC - Bonino List Members denounce cost of new building - Other critical positions

Strasbourg, 14/12/1999 (Agence Europe)

Italian Radical Marco Pannella announced at a press conference, even as President Chirac was preparing to participate in the inauguration of Parliament's new building in Strasbourg, that some 200 Members of the EP (of whom more than 60 from the EPP group, 40 from the Socialist group, 29 Liberals, 29 Greens, 10 from the Technical group, 4 from the United Left, 2 from the Union of Europe of Nations and 2 from the Europe of Democraties and Diversities group) had sent an open letter to the EU Heads of State and Government to ask that the question of the seat of the European Parliament be one of the subjects addressed by the next IGC on institutional reform. "Our transhumance" between the different work sites is no longer compatible with the need to "exercise our mandate in dignity", state the MEPs, who therefore ask that the Intergovernmental Conference discuss revision of the Protocol establishing that the European Parliament has its headquarters in Strasbourg, where it holds 12 monthly plenary sessions. "We ca

nnot continue to impose unjustified spending on European taxpayers", Marco Pannella told the press, adding that the dispersion between several seats "serves only to make the European Parliament not function". Gianfranco Dell'Alba, also elected on the Bonino List, said the seven MEPs from this list had prepared figures on the cost of the requirement that the EP meet in Strasbourg (EUROPE will return with details on the report, entitled: "Strasbourg: A 120 million euro pied-à-terre"). "Our work in Strasbourg, where we spend 60 days a year, costs as much as our work in Brussels (where the EP committees meet in practice for three weeks of every month), and the new building in Strasbourg cost 475 million French francs", observed Mr Dell'Alba.

British Conservative Roy Perry pointed out that, in a declaration signed meanwhile by 100 Members of the EP, he had asked the Council to give the European Parliament the right to decide for itself where it would like to meet. "I respect the historic status of Strasbourg and the great symbol this city represents, but our work methods diminish the city and Parliament in the eyes of the public", he asserted, adding that Members of the EP are elected to "fight waste effectively". Dutch Liberal Lousewies van der Laan said that, like other members of her group, she preferred not to take part in the inaugural festivities (whereone could see French fellow Members who "never turn up" when Parliament is working). There was "nothing to celebrate", she observed. Responding to a journalist who remarked that the public opinion does not necessarily appreciate the concentration of the European institutions in Brussels, she stated that things would be different if citizens had the impression that democratic control -which on

ly Parliament can exercise- was also guaranteed by these institutions. Belgian Green Nelly Maes commented that Parliament's costs are also excessive in Brussels and that Parliament itself must decide where it is to work.