Euro-MP backs bid to halt travelling circus

1.50.32pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 15th Apr 2004

West Midlands Euro-MP Liz Lynne is backing a campaign to save taxpayers more than £100 million a year by cleaning up the European Parliament and putting an end to its days as a 'travelling circus' moving between Brussels and Strasbourg.

Liz Lynne is backing the Campaign for Parliament Reform which was founded by her Liberal Democrat colleague Chris Davies and now claims the support of 90 parliamentarians from 13 different countries. The group aims to make the work of the European Parliament more open and efficient.

The Liberal Democrat MEP says that a fortune can be saved by ending the monthly movement of more than 3,000 MEPs, assistants and interpreters between Belgium and France. The reform group intends to ask every candidate standing in the European elections in June to pledge themselves to have a single base in Brussels and to vote for changes to ensure that travel expenses are reimbursed at cost.

But although the Strasbourg parliament building is used for only 4 days each month, and stands empty for more than 300 days each year, MEPs are forced to meet there by an international treaty agreed by former Conservative Prime Minister John Major and ratified by the British Parliament.

Liz Lynne accused John Major's successor, Tony Blair, of failing to make reform a priority in his discussions with other EU governments.

She said:

"Euro-MPs now have more influence over the making of many laws than backbench domestic MPs at Westminster, and the powers of the European Parliament are growing all the time. Yet despite the fact that a huge majority of MEPs want to change the ridiculous travel arrangements we are forced to continue because the prime minister has not pushed for change.

"It is ridiculous that taxpayers' money should be wasted by having two separate places to meet when we have a perfectly good parliament building in Brussels at the heart of the European institutions."

ENDS

Notes To Editors

Strasbourg sits astride the border between France and Germany and is regarded as a symbol of peace within a once war-torn continent. The current arrangements for the parliament date from a treaty agreed between prime ministers in 1992 at a meeting in Edinburgh.