Why does the European parliament move between Strasbourg and Brussels?

Brussels is generally considered to be the ‘capital’ of the European Union, insomuch as it would ever have one. It is home to the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, and the European Council – and is where Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) generally do their work.

But, 12 times a year, MEPs and their entourages decamp en masse nearly 450km away to the north-eastern corner of France, for four-day plenary sessions in the city of Strasbourg. The Parliament’s administrative offices, meanwhile, are based in Luxembourg.

You can listen to the team at The Local talk about Strasbourg and its role in both France and Europe in the Talking France podcast.

 

Two express trains are chartered to carry officials between Brussels and Strasbourg and several thousand boxes full of documents have to be transported by a courier agency. Some MEPs fly or make other travel arrangements.

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Travel expenses

It is reported that the cost of transporting hundreds of MEPs and their staff between the two cities costs the EU is at least €114 million per year. This figure, in fact, comes from a 2014 European Court of Auditors report, produced on the request of the European Parliament. The figures came to light after an signalling error diverted a train carrying politicians to Disneyland Paris in October 2023, prompting unfortunate Mickey Mouse jokes.

It’s safe, however, to assume that the cost has risen somewhat since then. Even some earlier estimates cited higher figures. 

So why do MEPs do something that seems, on the face of it, to be an expensive waste of time? 

It’s a question that some MEPs themselves would like answered. That oft-quoted 2014 report was prompted by an effort to prevent the monthly move, its related lost working days, additional hotel expenses and environmental impact. About 100 full-time staff are required to maintain the building in Strasbourg, even when it is empty of politicians, and the building is open to the public all year round.

In 2015, MEPs voted in favour of changing the rules to allow them to decide where they sat, by 483 votes to 141 – a sizeable majority. 

Five years later, MEPs again voted in favour of asking EU countries to agree to a single seat for the European Parliament – but they didn’t indicate whether it should be in Brussels or in Strasbourg.

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And, in 2022, at the height of the energy crisis, one German green MEP suggested the EU should scrap the monthly travelling parliament between the two cities for financial and environmental reasons. Daniel Freund told German daily Bild that the EU Parliament should no longer meet in Strasbourg "until the energy crisis is over".

Treaties

So why hasn’t any of this happened? Why is the apparent will of MEPs being ignored, and why does the monthly journey still take place?

Any attempt to change the existing set-up comes up against an intractable issue: a Treaty that established the EU as a political union in the first place. Under its terms, the European Parliament’s official seat and venue for most plenary sessions officially became Strasbourg; committees were to have their meetings in Brussels; and Parliament's Secretariat would be officially based in Luxembourg.

And it’s not the only treaty that references the location of the Parliaments. Which means that changing the rules would mean changing several treaties – a highly complex undertaking, just ask British politicians trying to extricate the country from EU bureaucracy after the Brexit vote eight years ago.

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The French

Shifting the seat of parliament permanently to Brussels would require unanimous support from all 27 members of the EU, and would certainly be blocked by France which protects the prestige and financial benefits that come with hosting the sessions. Equally, Belgium is unlikely to agree to Brussels falling off the key EU-seat map.

France has long refused to allow Strasbourg to be stripped of its status as a ‘European capital’. In 2015, then-president François Hollande said, “Never will France authorise any modification of any kind” to the current set-up.

There are long-held historical reasons, too, why Strasbourg, which also hosts a number of important EU institutions as well as the European Court of Human Rights, was chosen as the seat of the European Parliament.

Strasbourg - in the disputed Alsace region which changed hands repeatedly between France and Germany in the 19th and 20th centuries - is regarded as a symbol of reconciliation between EU big beasts France and Germany.

So its status is at least partly symbolic. Today, that symbolism may be on the wane. But, as history has already shown, changing the status quo anything but straightforward.