The European Parliament returns to Strasbourg (for 30 minutes then return to Brussels) – POLITICO
France desperately wanted the European Parliament to return to Strasbourg and on Monday it finally got its wish – well, sort of.
The President of the Parliament, David Sassoli, gave a 30-minute speech in the hemicycle of the Parliament building in Strasbourg and expressed his “emotion” to be back in the French city. Except that there were hardly any other MEPs there and he ended his speech by saying “and now, let’s take a break here from Strasbourg and continue our plenary… from the seat in Brussels”, before returning to the Belgian capital.
The awkward move was made in large part to please French President Emmanuel Macron, who last month expressed frustration over Sassoli’s decision to cancel numerous plenary sessions in Strasbourg due to the coronavirus and urged him to quickly resume his monthly visits to the Alsatian city, which is the seat of Parliament. seat.
Tensions with France escalated further after Clément Beaune, French Minister for European Affairs, sent a letter to Sassoli in which he also expressed “great concern” over Parliament’s intention to renovate its main building in Brussels at a cost of around 500 million euros.
On Monday, Sassoli met Beaune and Jeanne Barseghian, the mayor of Strasbourg, but he did not announce any resumption of activity in Strasbourg. Instead, Sassoli told reporters on his way to the building that he could not stay long as Parliament had “very important tasks” to accomplish this week in Brussels, including a vote on the budget. long-term policy and on the new budget. an agreed mechanism to link EU funds to the rule of law, as well as a debate on the ongoing Brexit negotiations.
MEPs will now spend the next few days holding their usual coronavirus-like plenary in Brussels, with a small number of lawmakers debating in person and voting online.
“We will be back to Strasbourg soon,” Sassoli told reporters ahead of its opening. speech, adding that he and Macron would be in Strasbourg on February 2 to pay tribute to former French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, who died earlier this month (there was also a minute of silence to commemorate him). “We hope that COVID-19 will release its grip … and that soon we will return to normality … This is our home, it is written as such in the treaties, it is written as such in the history of the European Union. “
Monday’s trip, however, was less of a regular Strasbourg production and more of a staging.
Sassoli flew to Strasbourg from Rome without his chief of staff. His opening speech was only watched in person by a handful of MEPs who traveled to Strasbourg but were unable to vote in person or debate from there due to coronavirus restrictions. The Parliament’s bars and restaurants were closed and the number of people present was reduced to a minimum.
The Speaker of Parliament used his half hour to mark the fifth anniversary of the Paris climate agreement, the unblocking of budget negotiations by EU leaders last week and the 25th anniversary of the Dayton accords which brought back the peace in Bosnia. He also announced that Parliament had taken note of the resignation of Hungarian MEP József Szájer, who was arrested earlier this month after being caught in a confinement “orgy”.
Dita Charanzová, a senior Czech MEP who was sitting in the hemicycle, called the session “sad and empty” and she was returning to Brussels the same day.
The only MEPs who welcomed Sassoli’s decision to open the plenary in Strasbourg were – unsurprisingly – French.
Even Virginie Joron, a Eurosceptic MEP from the far-right National Rally, thanked Sassoli for “doing us the honor” and urged him “to quickly rebalance the situation”.