Tag: Strasbourg

European parliamentarians have reacted angrily to Franco-German plans to abandon the so-called 'Community method' and reform economic governance of the euro zone on an intergovernmental basis. EurActiv.fr reports.

With air travel in the EU at a standstill, MEPs are divided between those from more centrally located countries who advocate going ahead with a plenary session in Strasbourg this week, despite the fact that many of their colleagues in peripheral countries are stranded. Those who are trapped abroad want the session cancelled and complain of being discriminated against.

The host city of the European Parliament's plenary sessions has launched a series of initiatives aimed at strengthening its image as a symbol of post-war European reconciliation and fending off accusations that the assembly's monthly trek to Strasbourg is a waste of taxpayers' money.

A large majority of MEPs wish to end the monthly 'travelling circus' between Brussels and Strasbourg, and have called for a single-seat European Parliament, when polled by a group of fellow MEPs. 

Carola Hein, associate professor of Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania writing in the journal Brussels Studies, outlines a new model for a decentralised European capital based in Brussels and other host cities.

A campaign to end the Parliament's monthly Strasbourg session has gathered one million signatures. But the issue may result in an institutional Pandora's Box that EU nations have no intention of opening for now, a leading French MEP told EurActiv.

Following a veto from Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel and in spite of public pressure, the European Summit will not question the Parliament's monthly relocations to Strasbourg.

Alarmed at the prospect of a low turnout at the European elections a British MEP tells EurActiv that "journalists could and should make more of the huge range of fascinating political issues".