Strasbourg or Brussels?

The seat of the European Parliament in Strasbourg has long been the subject of vigorous criticism. Structural defects reignited the discussion a few weeks ago. The French daily Le Monde analyses the debate: "The collapse of a false ceiling has made the main debating chamber at the European Parliament in Strasbourg unusable for the next few weeks and forced the MEPs to ... retreat to the Brussels location. This anecdote would normally not have provoked so many commentaries if it had not provided another opportunity to raise the question of where the parliament should be located - for the complaints about the parliamentary seat in the Alsatian capital, far away from the institutions in Brussels, are growing in number. ... In the case of the parliament the 'breakdown' feared by Jean Monnet ... is aggravated the fact that the parliament's sessions alternate between Brussels and Strasbourg. This forces a costly and unpractical mass exodus on the MEPs, functionaries and journalists. ... There are currently two competing models: one that foresees all operations being moved to Brussels, bringing everything together, as in the average state ... and one that envisages a division of labour and requires a geographical division of power. The first solution gives higher priority to administrative efficiency while the second takes more account of Europe's history."

» full article (external link, French)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » France, » Belgium, » Europe
All available articles from » Thomas Ferenczi

» To the complete press review of Friday, September 12, 2008