Parliament: 12 plenary sessions in Strasbourg in 2013. France is pleased, others are not

Parliament had consolidated 2 assemblies to reduce the costs of travel from Brussels
Paris appealed to the Court of Justice and the deputies had to do an about face

The European Parliament modified its calendar for 2013, establishing the dates of the 12 plenary sessions which will take place (one is already underway) in 2013. A vote was necessary to conform to the European Court of Justice’s regulations from September 13^th of last year with a ruling that requires that every year the European Parliament must hold 12 sessions in Strasbourg of equal length and they cannot be consolidated. But why does such a decision seem to be a given? Last year the European MP’s considered combining 2 plenary sessions in one week in order to reduce monthly travel costs from the headquarters in Brussels to the French EU Institute, a move that costs about 300 million Euro every year and millions of tons of CO₂ emitted into the atmosphere.

Yet France, who has everything to gain from this useless procedure, both in terms of “prestige” and economics, together with Luxembourg, petitioned the European Court of Justice to concur with the article of the EU Treaty. Therefore, now in October there will be 2 plenary sessions, in 2 different weeks with 2 big return trips between Brussels and Strasbourg. From our side we can do nothing more than reiterate our plea for one single seat for the European Parliament.

Here is the approved calendar:

14-17 January
4-7 February
11-14 March
15-18 April
20-23 May
10-13 June
1-4 July
9-12 September
7-10 October
21-24 October
18-21 November
9-12 December