On RFI: “Strasbourg embodies the Europe of the citizens better than Brussels”
While the European Parliament’s seat in Strasbourg is anchored in the founding treaties of the European Union, several political figures, including Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the new President of the CDU, question it. Will there be a new battle for the seat of the European Parliament in Strasbourg? This is the question that was discussed on RFI by Yves Bertoncini, President of the European Movement – France and Sylvain Kahn, Geographer and historian, Professor at Sciences Po.
From the outset, Yves Bertoncini pointed out that the seats chosen for the installation of the European institutions are highly symbolic: “This strip of land between France and Germany, which served as battlegrounds, was decided to make it a place of reconciliation in the Europe of the Six“. Now, the question of enlargement calls this into question.
The President of the European Movement – France highlights the pressure exerted on Strasbourg, which is “the collateral victim of the denunciation of the cost of political life and the cost of Europe”, without being alarmed. Indeed, he explains “that unanimity is required to move the headquarters from Strasbourg to Brussels, yet there is a rather powerful legal lock on the French side”.
The seat of the European Parliament in Strasbourg is a symbol of Europe united in diversity
For Yves Bertoncini, the European Parliament’s headquarters in Strasbourg is above all a symbol of European integration, but also of Europe’s civic dimension. In his opinion, “there is a symbol of the Europe of the citizens that Strasbourg embodies better than Brussels”. Moreover, he stresses that “Europe is unity in diversity, it is polycentrism, it is not all powers in the same place, in the hands of the same institution, the same party, the same person”. A dimension that the Germans should be the first to understand, according to him. He also pointed out that the European institutions and agencies are spread over several cities: Frankfurt, Luxembourg, etc.
The questioning of the seat of the European Parliament in Strasbourg in the AKK gallery, an entry into the campaign?
For Yves Bertoncini, this entry into the campaign was “a warning shot on a symbolic subject: the siege of Strasbourg”. However, he points out that this strategy is unlikely to produce results.
The aim for AKK is to respond to the President of the Republic, according to Yves Bertoncini, who specifies that Emmanuel Macron “by doing this Tribune wanted to pass over partisan apparatus by addressing European citizens directly”. A strategy that the President of the European Movement – France considers relevant since it “creates a form of public debate for citizens“.
The European Parliament’s headquarters in Strasbourg, a symptom of a Franco-German malaise?
Yves Bertoncini explains that this is a symptomatic element of a malaise in the Franco-German engine. For him, there will be no transfer of the seat of the European Parliament, but this battle “marks the beginning of a balance of power that will necessarily lead to a compromise”.
He recalled that this kind of opposition had already taken place with regard to transnational lists, a matter that had been seized by the President of the Republic, which was perceived as “a destabilization of established positions and in particular of the domination of the EPP and the EPP had therefore torpedoed this initiative”. Yves Bertoncini points out that in the case of the European Parliament’s headquarters in Strasbourg, it will not go much further.