Saj Karim MEP writes - end the Strasbourg Shuttle

Saj Karim, one of the Conservative MEPs for the North West of England, sent me this week the appended letter about an E-Petition which he and fellow Conservative MEPs have sponsered on the Downing Street website, calling for an end to the law which required the European Parliament to be based in two separate cities and shuttle between Brussels and Strasbourg.

I have signed this e-petition and strongly encourage anyone whe wants to end one of the most egregious examples of EU waste to do likewise. Saj's letter reads as follows:


Dear Friends and Colleagues
I and fellow Conservative MEPs, led by Ashley Fox MEP, have launched an e-petition calling on the Government to lobby for an end to the Strasbourg Circus at the European Council.
The European Parliament’s monthly one week relocation to Strasbourg Costly, farcical, wasteful and utterly pointless. Where else in the world would you see a Parliament re-locate to identical facilities 250 miles away for 48 days a year and leave the same huge building complex empty for the remaining 317 days.
So when the monthly plenary sessions take place, thousands of people have to de-camp to Strasbourg: MEPs, their staff, civil servants, government representatives and diplomats. Numerous lorries are stacked up with office documents to be transported nearly 300 miles to France. And this is despite the presence of an identical debating chamber in Brussels, perfectly capable of hosting the plenary sessions.
Conservative MEPs have led this battle and in March Ashley Fox convinced the Parliament to merge two sessions in October thus cutting down the trips to Strasbourg from 12 to 11.
The cost is estimated at 200 million Euros per year and 20,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. The transport connections to Strasbourg are so poor (you can’t fly there direct from the UK or from 20 other EU countries) that the majority of MEPs are forced to undertake a costly 2 or 3-leg journey to get there
The decision to scrap Strasbourg cannot be taken by MEPs. National Governments must agree and this important step at the European Council and our Conservative led government continues to lobby. A statement in the Coalition agreement reads: “We will press for the European Parliament only to have one seat, in Brussels”.
Getting 100,000 signatures for an e-petition means a good chance of a debate in the House of Commons on the subject. If you would like to see that debate take place please add your name to the petition: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/37529
Please encourage friends and colleague to sign too and forward this email to anyone you think will support.
Kind Regards
 
Sajjad Karim LLB (Hons) MEP
Conservative Member of the European Parliament- North West of England

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