International

This week my fellow MEP, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert of the right-wing liberal VVD, suddenly took the initiative to send a letter to the new permanent president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, asking him to put an end to the monthly circus that is the European Parliament's trek to Strasbourg. Great that there is at last some attention being paid to this issue, but the initiative itself, far from being a bold move, reeks of symbolic politics.

The monthly circus of the EP's move to Strasbourg costs €200 million a year

Last week it all came around once more: suitcases packed, hordes of Euro-MPs and their staff set out for Strasbourg. What that means in reality is that no-one can get any work done during the day on Monday, or from lunchtime on Thursday. Everyone is 'on the way'. On the Friday at the end of the Strasbourg week, the European Parliament secretariat is not expected to work, in order to give staff chance 'to recover from the vicissitudes of travel'. It wouldn't surprise me if some MEPs take the same line. All in all this adds up to half a working week lost, and that is in addition to all of the costs associated with travel and subsistence.

So at first sight it's to be welcomed that some Euro-MPs are calling attention to this. I do not, however, think that a note to Van Rompuy, merely bringing the problem to his notice, will prove persuasive. I recently proposed to the 'Oranjeberaad', the regular meeting between Dutch MEPs from every party, that we ask leaders of member state governments (the people who gather under Van Rompuy's chairmanship in the European Council) if they could consider the possibility that NATO headquarters could be moved from Brussels to Strasbourg, enabling the EP henceforth to remain permanently in Brussels. Hennis-Plasschaert's party, the VVD, offered no support to this suggestion, with delegation leader Hans Van Baalen saying that he didn't think it would be suitable to banish NATO to such a provincial little city. Yet we will never achieve anything if we do not offer France something in exchange for their giving up Strasbourg as the seat of the EP.

I'll certainly sign the letter, but I hope in the future that my parliamentary colleagues will show a bit more creativity. As for me, I'm still waiting for a real answer to the question on this matter that I brought before the Oranjeberaad...