History Repeating Itself?

It turns out this picture of my holding up the European Parliament may have been more omen than fun.

A few weeks ago, EU critics had a lot of fun when the roof of the Parliament in Strasbourg collapsed. That’ right, it fell in on itself. “EU falling apart” read some of the gleeful blog posts and headlines. Captivating though they were, this is now a serious problem for the EU. Reconstruction on the Parliament is underway but now comes word that it won’t be ready for Parliament’s opening session this month, meaning the opening will be held in Brussels.

This is a major blow for Strasbourg. It’s already not loved by EU critics with many using it as the best example of EU excess. Technically, Strasbourg is the official seat of the European Parliament. EU law mandates that 12 plenary sessions be held in Strasbourg every year. The Espace Leopold complex in Brussels is smaller and is used for only preparatory meetings and non-plenary sessions. This has been a bone of contention for a while. Never mind that Brussels is the hub of most EU business but the cost of moving 790 MEPs and staff back and forth is expensive. The BBC puts the cost at £160 million (the Canadian dollar is twice the worth of one pound).

It’s gotten so bad that when at a conference I was at, a (French) reporter remarked that he believed that the citizen’s initiative—a part of the Lisbon Treaty that would allow EU citizens to propose legislation—was created in order to start a grassroots campaign to abolish Strasbourg as the Parliament’s official headquarters.

Advocates of the Parliament's Strasbourg headquarters—and not just the French who insist on hosting a major EU institution—say that it's important European history keeping the Parliament there. As I mentioned before, Strasbourg has huge symbolism in Europe. It’s located in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France, an area that has been a major bone of contention between France and Germany since the nineteenth century. Having the Parliament there is supposed to be a symbol of Europe overcoming war and strife to form a union. But what does it say about this union when Strasbourg is again at the center of another European cross-country dispute?