Let the European Parliament stop going to Strasbourg

What follows is an exercise in speech writing.

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Dear ladies and gentlemen,

the European Parliament is travelling from Brussels to Strasbourg and back again twelve times a year. While that is not a flying circus (Monty Python's or otherwise), it certainly looks like a travelling one. It tarnishes the reputation of the European Union. One would think, if European Union cannot fix such a simple matter, how can it ever really fix anything?

Surely it should not be too hard to obtain unanimity (unanimous consensus) about this being an absurd waste and exercise. And then, the contracts or whatever else applies would be amended and the problem would be solved. (Unanimity seems to be required.)

Sure enough, France could raise objections. France has a national pride, as many other nation states do. But this aspect does not improve France's reputation. France does not need to improve its standing by insisting on a travelling circus. It has many things to boast about: French science (e.g. Lavoisier), French system of metric units, French movie comedians entertaining the whole world (Muskatnuss, Herr Müller!), aircraft maker Airbus, a major competitor to American Boeing, the Eiffel Tower, Descartes being the philosophical and mathematical superstar, Laplace, Lagrange, Burbaki, etc. etc. (this is from the top of my head).

France should also consider that it does not seem fair that it alone has this prominent role. Why should not the travelling circus visit Italian Rome (but that has already the seat of a pope)? Why not Spanish Madrid or Barcelona? Why was London excluded (but it is one of the capitals of finance)? Why are Germans and their great cities left behind (but Germany has ECB in Frankfurt)? Netherlands and its Amsterdam is left behind. Austria's great Vienna, the former capital of Austria-Hungary, famous for many illustrious names, does not get a visit. And so on, and so forth. (What about Prague, allegedly one of the most beautiful cities in Europe?)

Let us stop this absurdity and fix this outstanding issue.

Thank you.

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Limitations:

• I wrote the French things to boast about very quickly from the top of head. And thus, it is quite inferior. French art is not mentioned. French science has only one name mentioned. What about Joan of Arc? Condorcet? Other movie actors? (Belmondo, Pierre Richard, Pierre Brice, etc.). Mandelbrot? The French guy presenting for Steve Jobs? Many illustrious names could be collected. As it stands, it is very subjectively put together, and cheaply too. However, the argument is so simple and obvious as to even not deserve an articulation: let France continue doing the things that are good or great and stop insisting on the travelling circus.

Links:

• Seat of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, wikipedia.org
• Lawmakers urge EU Parliament to halt monthly Strasbourg trip over energy costs, Apr 2026, politico.eu
• European parliament 'should stop Strasbourg sittings to hit carbon-neutral goal', Nov 2020, theguardian.com
• Parliament’s Strasbourg no-show, Sep 2020, politico.eu
• MEPs push to leave Strasbourg site with treaty change, Nov 2013, bbc.com

License: CC-BY-SA 4.0 International; last change: 10 August 2026.