Luxembourg Hemicycle

Last week was unusual in Strasbourg in the fact it was two plenary weeks. Monday and Tuesday counted as a full weeks work, and Thursday and Friday counted as a second plenary. Wednesday was left as a free day, so I took the opportunity to complete some admin work at the Luxembourg Parliament building.

While we were there, we took the chance to look at the old voting chamber. The Hemicycle looks like an old council chamber!

PRESS RELEASE: EUROPEAN COMMISSION UNABLE TO PAY ITS BILLS

Press Release

European Commission Unable to Pay Its Bills

As the Eurozone crisis worsens, the EU has admitted that it is unable to pay its bills on time.

A passage in a report due to be debated in the European Parliament in Strasbourg on March 13th, reveals that "...while the Council refused in December 2011 to finance identified additional needs, some payment claims amounting to more than EUR 10 billion could not be honoured in late 2011, which is now impacting directly on available 2012 payments".

 

The report, authored by Italian MEP Giovanni La Via, deals with the budget for the European Commission in 2013. It calls for additional funding in order for the Commission to be able to honour its debts.

West Midlands MEP Nikki Sinclaire said "How on earth can the Commission be €10 billion short at the end of the year? How can they allow themselves to overspend by this amount? If this were a commercial enterprise it would be filing for bankruptcy now."

The report also reveals that the European Parliament's Budgets Committee is now extremely worried about the situation of payments in 2012.

                                                                  ENDS

   

The Strasbourg Circus

As few of you might know, MEPs and the European Parliament are all on the move during this early part of the week, as this week is a Strasbourg week.

The Parliament meets in Strasbourg for 12 sessions a year, and the building is unused for an estimated 307 days per year.

The travelling circus involves many trucks transporting goods from the MEPs offices in Brussels over to Strasbourg, and then back again once the week is over. Assistants and other workers from the Parliament all relocate at a massive cost.

It seems ironic that in a news week which is dominated by the EU telling Greece to cut costs, that they can justify the cost of moving the Parliament from Brussels to Strasbourg for one week a month.

In this article taken from EUObserver in 2008, it was estimated that the travelling circus costs around  €200 million per year, and has a big environmental impact with all the extra travel involved.

Further reading

The Contradiction of the EU's Strasbourg sessions
Strasbourg Carbon Cost Condemned