Strasbourg the 12th June 2000

Dear Colleagues, signatories of the "Strasbourg appeal",

Wednesday the 14 th of June, we will have the occasion to vote the schedule for the year 2001. According to the terms of the Treaty, we are obliged to move to Strasbourg in order for "monthly plenary sessions" to be held there twelve times per year. Even the Court of Justice, in its ruling of 1 October 1999, compels us to respect this obligation and de facto removes all of our decision-making power in this matter.

However, in order to pursue our battle for the institutional "self-determination" of the EP in this matter and for improvement of our parliamentary working conditions, we regarded it as useful to compose three "packages" of amendments of which we request your adherence and support.

The first package of twelve amendments simply aims at moving the sessions from Strasbourg to Brussels. Whilst being well aware that these amendments risk being considered inadmissible in view of the above-mentioned ruling of the Court of Justice, we present them in order to reaffirm our position of December 1999.

The second package, which is more in-depth, aims to switch the duration of the sessions in Strasbourg and Brussels by (i) limiting the duration of the first sessions to two days, namely to Wednesday and Thursday,(ii) consequently prolonging the additional Brussels sessions and (iii) calling necessary supplementary sessions in Brussels.

The third package, more modestly, aims at reducing the sessions solely to the days of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, whether they are held at Brussels or Strasbourg.

We are convinced that the presentation of these amendments together with as many signatures by colleagues as possible, who have already manifested their hostility towards the "fait accompli" policy concerning the seat of the EP will allow us to re-open the "Strasbourg" question on the occasion of the intergovernmental conference as the Parliament clearly stated in its proposals adopted on the 13th of April 2000 concerning the CIG (report of Dimitrakopoulos-Leinen).

Please let us know, by e-mail or fax (49197 or 79197), your availability to sign, in whole or in part, the amendments next Monday or Tuesday in Strasbourg. We will contact you later to collect your signature.

Kind regards,

Gianfranco Dell'Alba Olivier Dupuis Marco Pannella