The hemicycle of the European Parliament in Brussels.

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Wikicommons

  • Renovation work is planned for the European Parliament in Brussels.

    An amount of 500 million euros is mentioned.

  • This questions the Alsatian elected officials, who are worried that this work will have negative repercussions on the Strasbourg headquarters.

  • It is in this sense that they wrote to the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli.

"A whim of the Gods?

This is the title of the letter sent Tuesday by several Alsatian elected representatives to the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli.

Their missive aims to protest against work, which would be considered, and without public debate, on the European Parliament building in Brussels, nicknamed "the caprice of the Gods".

They see in these renovations a new blow for the hemicycle of Strasbourg, already neglected lately.

“The European Parliament has in Strasbourg, its seat city, a perfectly functional building designed to face the challenges to come.

It is large enough to adapt to health measures and designed in such a way as to considerably reduce our ecological footprint ”, write the LR president of the Grand-Est region Jean Rottner, the ecological mayor of Strasbourg Jeanne Barseghian, the president of the metropolis Pia Imbs, as well as the presidents of the departmental councils of Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin, Frédéric Bierry and Rémy With.

A renovation for an amount of around 500 million euros?

“So many assets which can only accentuate our surprise when we learn that there are plans to renovate the hemicycle in Brussels, part of the reconstruction of the Paul Henri Spaak building, for an amount of around 500 million euros. 'euros ”, add elected officials, before calling for“ a real public debate ”on this renovation project.

What is the relevance of initiating a € 500 million project for the reconstruction of a new hemicycle in Brussels when there is a functional one in #Strasbourg?



This morning, 5 communities are wondering in an open letter published in 6 national & regional dailies 👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/tk06hjwBpl

- Fabienne Keller (@fabienne_keller) November 24, 2020

When questioned, a spokesperson for the European Parliament said she was "a little surprised" at the cost mentioned.

“What they say in the letter is not true.

(…) We do not know where this figure comes from, ”she said, indicating that David Sassoli was to respond“ soon ”to this open letter.

“We launched a competition for ideas on what to do with the building in question [Paul-Henri Spaak].

In August, fifteen proposals were selected which will be presented in February to, again, retain five.

But for the moment these are only ideas of architects, etc ... We are still far from a concrete project.

And we have not yet spoken of the budget, ”detailed the spokesperson for the institution.

An old debate

Having been the subject of debate for years, the official seat of the European Parliament, the only European institution elected by the citizens, is in Strasbourg in a huge building built twenty years ago where, normally, twelve plenary sessions of three and a half days a year.

But the vast majority of parliamentary work takes place in Brussels, in a building constructed in 1993 which is expected to undergo major renovations.

The many supporters of a single seat, which would be established in Brussels, regularly denounce the financial and ecological cost of this monthly transhumance of about 2,500 people to Strasbourg, while the defenders of the Strasbourg seat fear that the current health crisis will serve excuse to abandon the Alsatian capital, and this despite what is written in the European treaties.

The French government in support

Due to the health crisis, the European Parliament has not held a plenary session in Strasbourg since February, the following ones having taken place either in Brussels or remotely.

Measures that the French government intends to stop.

In another letter sent this Wednesday to David Sassoli, the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, calls for "a resumption as quickly as possible of the work of Parliament within the framework provided for by the treaties".

To follow up on the requests of the Alsatian elected officials, he writes that “France expresses its great concern about the financial investments envisaged for the renovation of the Brussels hemicycle”.

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