The ceiling of the European Parliament gives way (again)

Did someone play dirty? With the passing of time the futuristic buildings of the European Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg are growing old. Or maybe someone don’t like our members of Parliament. Some years ago the House of Strasbourg was closed after the falling of the ceiling and today the House of Brussels there’s a similar problem. A little bit after they started working after summer holidays – and it will probably be hard work – that they had to close the building. The reason? Security. The Paul Henri Spaak building is damaged: preventive maintenance checks have revealed cracks in three of the 21 wooden beams above Parliament’s plenary chamber and so they had to close the A section and start further checks to ascertain the source of the problem.

The decision was made “as a matter of precaution and prevention”, said Jaume Duch, spokesman of the European Parliament. Dutch, underlining that the problem was discovered in time, assured that Parliamentary activities will be unaffected. So is everything all right? Not everything, a little discomfort remains. The press entrance in Rue Vautier will be unavailable during the closure of Section A and the accreditation of journalists will temporarily be relocated to the Accreditation Centre in the Altiero Spinelli Building (rue Wiertz). The briefing room is close while the working room for journalists remains unaffected and will continue to be accessible from the central atrium.

But the French delegation of EPP group is worried. In a press release they write: “Deficiencies in the security system had already been observed in September 2011 following a fire in a high voltage cabin that caused the paralysis of the European Parliament Brussels and difficult evacuation”. For that reason they ask to move the mini-plenary session from Brussels to Strasbourg “until the security is restored”.