Alsatian elected officials protest against work planned at the European Parliament in Brussels

"The European Parliament has in Strasbourg, its seat city, a perfectly functional building designed to face the challenges to come. It is large enough to adapt to health measures and designed to considerably reduce our ecological footprint. ", defend the LR president of the Grand Est region Jean Rottner, the ecological mayor of Strasbourg Jeanne Barseghian, the president of the metropolis Pia Imbs, as well as the presidents of the departmental councils of Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin, Frédéric Bierry and Rémy With.

"So many assets which can only accentuate our surprise when we learn that there are plans to renovate the hemicycle in Brussels, part of the reconstruction of the Paul Henri Spaak building, called + le Caprice des Dieux +, for an amount of around 500 million euros ", add elected officials in an open letter to the President of the European Parliament, the Italian David Sassoli.

"Does Europe have the means to afford the luxury of such an investment?", they criticize, claiming "a real debate" public on this renovation project.

Asked by AFP in Brussels, a spokesperson for the European Parliament said "a little surprised" of the amount of 500 million euros mentioned.

"What they say in the letter is not true. (...) We are really a little surprised. We do not know where this figure comes from", she said, indicating that David Sassoli had to answer "soon" to this open letter.

"We launched a competition of ideas on what to do with the building in question (Paul-Henri Spaak). In August, fifteen proposals were selected which will be presented in February to, again, retain five. But for now these are only the ideas of architects, etc ... We are still far from a concrete project. And we have not yet spoken of the budget ", detailed the spokesperson for the institution.

Having been the subject of debate for years, the official seat of the European Parliament, the only European institution elected by the citizens, is in Strasbourg in a huge building built twenty years ago where, normally, twelve plenary sessions of three and a half days a year. But the vast majority of parliamentary work takes place in Brussels, in a building constructed in 1993 which is expected to undergo major renovations.

The many supporters of a single seat, which would be established in Brussels, regularly denounce the financial and ecological cost of this monthly transhumance of about 2.500 people to Strasbourg, while the defenders of the Strasbourg seat fear that the current health crisis will serve excuse to abandon the Alsatian capital, and this despite what is written in the European treaties.

Due to the health crisis, the European Parliament has not held a plenary session in Strasbourg since February, the following ones having taken place either in Brussels or remotely.