Strasbourg (AFP)
Thirteen right-wing French parliamentarians demanded on Wednesday, in an open letter to President Emmanuel Macron, the permanent installation of European Parliament officials in Strasbourg (East) to strengthen the institution's anchoring in the Alsatian capital, undermined by the pandemic.
"For more than a year, the European Parliament has not met at its seat in Strasbourg. This prolonged absence is incomprehensible today for the French people attached to this institution", write the seven deputies, the five senators ( Alsaciens) as well as the MEP Anne Sander.
These parliamentarians are calling for "the permanent and definitive installation in Strasbourg of some of the staff of the European Parliament, those necessary for the plenary session as well as the functions relating to communication and diplomacy".
They also want several services (human rights, electoral observation, Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought, etc.) to be located in the Alsatian capital and for it to host more meetings.
MEPs normally meet for three and a half days a month in plenary in Strasbourg, the official seat of the European Parliament, and the rest of the time in Brussels, where most of the institutions of the European Union are located.
But the last plenary in Strasbourg took place in February 2020, the president of parliament David Sassoli having refocused activity in Brussels due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Strasbourg seat of parliament, jealously defended by the French, has been the subject of debate for years, with critics of the institution's monthly transhumance between Brussels and Strasbourg deeming it superfluous and costly.
© 2021 AFP