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“The anti-Strasbourg faction has won yet another victory,” complains Les Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace, in the wake of the adoption by the European Parliament’s Committee on Constitutional Affairs (by 22 votes to 4) of a report, which demands that MEPs themselves decide on the venue for the European Parliament’s plenary sessions.
Lambasting a document “without any legislative value”, which was “undertaken on the initiative of notoriously anti-Strasbourg representatives,” the Strasbourg daily points out that the report —
… demands that heads of state and government, who would have to reach an unanimous decision to change the seat of the institution, should cede this prerogative to the parliament itself.
A solid majority of MEPs are opposed to the monthly sessions in Strasbourg. And that is precisely the location of the next plenary session in November, where they are expected to approve this report.
In London, the Daily Telegraph, which is not known for its fondness for European institutions, voices its support for the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, and points to the environmental impact of the two-city system —
The constant shuffling between Brussels and Strasbourg - which takes place twice this month - also pumps an estimated 20,000 tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere.
