Last month the roof literally fell in on the Parliament in Strasbourg and as a result for the first time the normal monthly session has been held in Brussels!
This is great news for all of us who have been complaining for years about the crazy travelling circus that sees MEPs and their staff undertake a monthly 500 mile round trip between Brussels and the pictoresque Alsacien city nestled next to the German border.
These monthly trips emit roughly the same amount of CO2 emissions as all the patio heaters in the EU, yet clearly oblivious of the irony, MEPs recently voted to ban patio heaters because they were too damaging to the environment.
It looks likely that the next session will also be in Brussels as the Strasbourg parliament will take several weeks to repair. The momentum is now well and truly in favour of ending the Strasbourg sessions altogether and holding all of them in Brussels.
Unfortunately the French government is still digging its heals in and is refusing to negotiate an end to the Strasbourg sessions. There are potential options, such as turning the Parliament into a university, but what ever happens, it is clear that the French will have to be offered something in return for giving up their right to host the Parliament. Until they do give in, the biggest and most obvious example of European mismanagement and waste, the monthly trek of MEPs to Strasbourg, will remain a symbol of everything that is wrong with the EU.
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