Lights out at the European Parliament

It may not be extraordinary for Malta but bureaucrats in Brussels had every reason to be surprised as a power blackout yesterday hit the main building of the European Parliament.

Thousands of functionaries and parliamentary assistants were sent home mid-way through their day’s work as the building was plunged into darkness.

MEPs had to cut short their meetings and working lunches. Others were caught in the lifts of the 15-storey building and had to wait for quite a while before security personnel could get them out.

The power failure was caused by a fire at a sub-station supplying the building in a park just outside the Parliament’s esplanade.

A Maltese employee spoke about the confusion which reigned when the power went out at 2 p.m.

“It took some time to establish the real cause of this extraordinary blackout and many were already mentioning the possibility of a terrorist attack. However, things calmed down and, of course, many were happy when they were told to take the rest of the day off,” he said. A group of eurosceptics gathered outside the building and joked that the EP had failed to pay its electricity bills.

A spokesman for Parliament later explained that although the EP was equipped with generators it was impossible to supply all the building’s energy needs.