Frustrating for MEPs

I appreciate the concerns raised by Robert G. Coenen (June 19).

It is true that the European Parliament has its seat in three locations not one - Strasbourg, Brussels and Luxembourg - costing European taxpayers €200 million a year.

Allow me to clarify, however, that this decision was not taken by the European Parliament itself. Few readers may know this. The decision on the seat of the European Parliament was taken by the governments of all EU countries and enshrined in the EU Treaty. It was taken as part of a deal to share out the seat of EU institutions among different EU countries.

As such, this decision cannot be changed by the European Parliament because Treaty changes require the consent of all the governments of all the 25 member states acting unanimously.

This means that the power to decide on the seat of the European Parliament does not lie with the Parliament itself but with EU governments, not least those of France, Belgium and Luxembourg. And since turkeys don't vote for Christmas, one can well appreciate that an agreement on a single seat will be hard to come by.

This is indeed frustrating for us MEPs since we are working hard to give a strong voice to citizens at an EU level on issues that affect their daily lives.