EU: The European Parliament spends €170 million a year shuttling MEPs between its two assemblies - one in the Belgian capital, Brussels, the other in the French city, Strasbourg.
This money could be saved by closing the latter, an internal report says. The study, by the parliament's own secretariat, said the cost of having two parliament buildings, plus an administrative centre in Luxembourg, would rise to more than €200 million a year when the EU expands in 2004.
The report will strengthen the hand of a growing number of MEPs who are campaigning to abolish the Strasbourg seat, where the parliament has to meet once a month by treaty.
Anti-Strasbourg MEPs say that going to the French seat for one week a month, when their permanent offices are 430 km away in Brussels, is not only costly but also damages the parliament's credibility among an already sceptical public.
But French politicians defend Strasbourg, saying the city, which was part of Germany from 1871 to 1918 and changed hands several times due to war, is a symbol of a united, peaceful and democratic Europe once ravaged by conflict.
The neutrally phrased report's estimate only takes into account costs borne by parliament's budget and not, for example, the transport and hotel costs of hundreds of journalists, lobbyists and EU officials who go to Strasbourg every month. - (Reuters)