We all have a view on this and so I asked our ECR group expert on this area Richard Ashworth MEP, to give his full assessment:
“Yes, unfortunately it is the case that currently the European Parliament has multiple seats and therefore once a month it relocates from Brussels to Strasbourg for a single week. This is estimated to have a monetary cost of €180m and produces 19,000 tonnes of CO2 a year. Conservatives in the European Parliament are fundamentally opposed to the idea of the Strasbourg Parliament. The leader of the UK Conservatives in the European Parliament, Ashley Fox MEP wrote a report that received support from the majority of the European Parliament that called for the elimination of the Strasbourg Parliament. You can read the full report here. Mr Ashworth, as a member of the Budgets Committee, has consistently called for the elimination of the Strasbourg Parliament. He did so during last year’s Budget process with his alternative budget which you can read here. Mr Ashworth will push for the elimination of the Strasbourg Parliament again next year. You can sign the petition to end the two seat Parliament here. Nevertheless, there are Member States with a vested interest in maintaining the Strasbourg Parliament and in order to eliminate the Parliament there needs to be an amendment to the Treaty. To amend the Treaty you need the unanimous support of all the Member States. Regardless, Mr Ashworth and the Conservatives in the European Parliament will continue to push for the end of the Parliament relocating to Strasbourg every month.”