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 so-called travelling circus is a Treaty obligation, imposed by the agreement of the national governments of the Member States. And it is only those governments which could put a stop to the nonsense. To suggest that MEPs could 'reform their procedures' to opt out of Strasbourg is ludicrous.
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