skip to nav

The Strasbourg rent scandal

The allegation has brought more calls to stop the monthly trek to Strasbourg, says nicola smith

Senior European MPs have accused the city of Strasbourg of skimming off €1 million a year in rent paid by the Parliament for two city buildings. "We have been taken for a ride," says Jan Mulder, a Dutch Liberal MEP.

The revelation has reignited the campaign by some MEPs to put a stop to the bizarre ritual whereby every month the entire European parliament must decamp from Brussels to Strasbourg at a cost to taxpayers of £200 million a year.

The scandal was exposed after the Strasbourg Mayor, Fabienne Keller, was forced to admit that the city stands to receive €29 million if the parliament goes ahead with a plan to buy - rather than continue to rent - the two buildings. MEPs now understand that the €29m is compensation for the money the

Dan Hannan MEP proposes a solution
 Scroll through The First Post's graphic showing the mad trek to Strasbourg in detail

city will no longer receive from an extraordinary deal. The city has been renting the two properties from Dutch company called Erasme and then subletting them to the European parliament. In the process the city was allegedly adding €1million a year to the European parliament's bill. "It is clear that the city of Strasbourg has been siphoning off €1 million euros a year," said Edward McMillan-Scott, a vice-president of the parliament.

The allegation has infuriated those MEPs who are sick and tired of the monthly trek to Strasbourg. All 732 MEPs, plus 2000 staff and many more civil servants, must make the return journey every month. With them go lorry-loads of paperwork and attendant journalists and lobbyists.

Only three weeks ago, a cross-party group tried to reopen the Strasbourg question, but their amendment was defeated. The fact is any decision to switch the parliament permanently to Brussels will have to be taken unanimously by all 25 EU governments. France, which sees the seat as boosting national prestige, will never agree.

FIRST POSTED APRIL 26, 2006

News & Comment: News & Politics