EU Parliament's two homes create 20,000 tons of C02
Wednesday, 25 April 2007
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The "travelling circus" between the European Parliament's two homes pumps the same amount of C02 into the atmosphere as 4,000 London homes and undermines MEPs' credibility on green issues, according to a report.
A study of the impact of the monthly commute between the Brussels and Strasbourg seats of the European Parliament concludes that it not only costs tax payers an extra €200m a year, but does the same environmental damage as a total of 13,000 round-trip transatlantic flights.
The audit of the cost to the planet of the thousands of extra road, rail and plane journeys, as well as heating one extra building, is likely to intensify pressure on the Euro MPs to reform their procedures. More than one million people have signed a petition calling for the Strasbourg seat to be axed.
The 60-page document, commissioned by the UK's two Green MEPs, was conducted by John Whitelegg, professor of sustainable transport at the Stockholm Environment Institute at the University of York.
It calculates the extra carbon emissions generated every month by MEPs, staff, journalists and visitors travelling from Brussels to Strasbourg and back, the "carbon costs" of freight between the two sites, and the energy needed to maintain the two parliament buildings. Together, they total at least 20,000 tons of unnecessary CO2, according to the report.
Caroline Lucas, one of the MEPs who commissioned the document, said: "It is simply unacceptable that so much CO2 is being emitted completely unnecessarily - and €200m is being wasted every year - on this anachronistic travelling circus. These emissions are not just undermining EU efforts to cut CO2 across the union: they send out a signal that cutting emissions isn't as big a priority as defending the status quo."
The monthly plenary sessions of the Parliament in Strasbourg require the movement of 400 personal assistants of MEPs and between 120 and 160 journalists based in Brussels as well as dozens of officials and lobbyists. Fifteen lorries ferry cupboards and tin trunks full of documents each month from Brussels or Luxembourg to Strasbourg and back again.
Despite the growing criticism of the two seats, France has so far resisted calls for reform and any change would need the approval of all EU governments.
