MEP celebrates not going to Strasbourg

12.08.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 2nd Sep 2008

Local Euro-MP Liz Lynne has celebrated with colleagues at not having to join the monthly 'travelling circus', after last month's roof collapse at the Strasbourg parliament prevented the usual trip to France.

This week's session is being held in the European Parliament's more usual home in Brussels, thereby inadvertently saving the taxpayer an estimated £308.40 per minute.

Liz Lynne, a member of the Campaign for Parliamentary Reform, has for many years criticised the monthly trips to France, arguing that it is a waste of MEPs' time and, most importantly, of taxpayers' money.

Speaking today from Brussels Liz said:

"I am relieved that for once we have been spared the ridiculous upheaval of travelling hundreds of miles to Strasbourg when our main parliament building is in Brussels. This shows just how redundant the Strasbourg Parliament is, and how much taxpayer's money could be saved if we stopped using it altogether.

"This is the only parliament that is prevented from deciding its location and it is the stubbornness of the French Government that is stopping having a single seat in Brussels. The French must face up to the responsibility of their current Presidency of the European Union and rid the EU of this massive financial burden.

"It is ludicrous that the European Parliament works so hard to reduce its carbon footprint that we are forced to make periodic trips that have a huge environmental and financial cost. This gives the EU a bad name and undermines the work we do as parliamentarians."

ENDS

Notes:

PHOTO CAPTION: Liz Lynne MEP cuts a 'Welcome to Brussels' cake at a celebration organised by the 'One Seat' campaign. The hard hat is a nod to the Strasbourg Parliament, where the roof collapsed last month.

Normally, the 785 members of the European Parliament are forced to leave their main home in Brussels in order to travel to the French city where voting on Parliamentary legislation takes place. They are there for only four days leaving the building empty for 307 days of the year.

In addition to the actual members of the parliament, the trip also requires staff and container lorries full of papers to be transported across Europe, producing an estimated 20,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year.

Campaign for Parliamentary Reform: http://www.ep-reform.eu/index.php

Figures are based on 2007 estimates that the Strasbourg Parliament costs €203 million per year.