One home for European Parliament essential, says Fiona Hall

1.05.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 11th Jun 2008

Fiona Hall MEP for the North East has written to the Minister for Europe, Jim Murphy MP, asking for the UK Government to support moves to make Brussels the permanent home of the European Parliament.

The OneSeat Petition, which has attracted over a million signatures, calls for an end to the constant move of MEPs, staff and journalists between Brussels and Strasbourg . In response to the petition, the President of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Pöttering will be writing to the 27 EU governments to ask if they are prepared to reconsider the issue of the Parliament's location.

Fiona has pointed out in her letter to Mr Murphy that spreading the European Parliament across three sites costs EU taxpayers almost €200million (£160 million) a year, and uses up around 15% of the European Parliament's annual budget.

In addition, Fiona says that studies show that the monthly travel of MEPs, staff and journalists to Strasbourg for plenary sessions produces 20,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, which undermines the EU's own targets to cut CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020.

Fiona said:

"Now that a letter from President Pöttering will formally put the issue on the table, the British Government needs to be clear about where it stands on this vexed question of where the European Parliament should be based.

"Given that the Parliament would cut its carbon emissions, work more efficiently, save time and stop wasting money if Brussels were made its only home , I trust that Mr Murphy will give me a clear and categorical answer that the Government supports the One Seat campaign. "