According to a letter sent to Parliament staff by UK Liberal Democrat MEP Fiona Hall, seen by EurActiv, two men with a gun robbed the EU assembly's post office.
"I have just been to buy some stamps in the European Parliament post office. I was met at the door by the two female staff members, in a state of shock because a few minutes earlier they had been held up at gunpoint by two robbers, who went off with the safe," she wrote.
This is the third time in under two years that the European Parliament's Brussels premises have been raided. On 28 May 2010 an employee of Sodexo was robbed while transporting money from the Parliament canteen, while on 12 February 2009 a man with a gun robbed a branch of ING bank on the ground floor of Parliament's Paul-Henri Spaak building. He demanded cash from a cashier and escaped with an undisclosed sum.
On that occasion the area was only sealed off once the police had arrived and a helicopter even hovered overhead.
"For an armed robbery to happen - again - inside the European Parliament means that the security system here is a complete farce," Hall said. "On behalf of all MEPs and staff I hope that there will now be a full and rigorous enquiry," she added.
German MEP Alexander Alvaro (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe), responding to his colleague Fiona Hall's email, said it was "an absolute disgrace that - for the third time in one year - there has been a gunpoint in this building: one might remember the incidents at the bank or the restaurant a while ago".
"Apparently our security systems in house seem to be rather inviting [than preventing] such an incident. Are we working in a building with security holes that are bigger than our garage entrance?" Alvaro asked.
"What is much more upsetting, though, is the fact that our own security services [have] no intention of informing members, assistants and staff that there is a situation in the building and [advising us] to take certain security measures," he said.
"Furthermore, the building is shut down and anybody trying to leave is left with zero explanation [as to] why they may not. The minimum to be done could be to give information - this is not the Muppet Show but a parliament with an obvious security problem!" he said.
A European Parliament spokesperson confirmed that two people had held up the post office and escaped with an unknown sum. She said Parliament security services and the police were investigating what happened.
