EU lawmakers are set to vote on a plan to lease and buy a building next to the European Parliament in Strasbourg without knowing the purchase price, in the latest twist in a lengthy – and increasingly murky – battle between the Parliament’s leaders.
The vote in the Parliament’s budget committee on Wednesday (19 July) ends a lengthy arm wrestle between the Parliament’s political groups on whether to overhaul its premises in Strasbourg- known as the Osmose building.
The contract presented to the committee, which has oversight of EU spending, states that the French government can sell the building at any time without consulting the Parliament.
But Parliament would have first refusal to buy the building, and the cost would be that set by the French government minus the total rent paid up until that moment under the lease. The building is still owned by the private contractor that built it.
However, in a clarification by the Parliament’s legal service for MEPs, it has emerged that the French government has still not bought the building and will only do so if MEPs approve the lease. That would leave MEPs voting to approve an unknown purchase price.
Following the completion of the building, which offers 15,000 square metres of office space, in 2021, the French government announced that a deal had been struck with the Parliament’s leadership, known as the Bureau, to purchase it.
The Osmose building sits next to the main Parliament building and was intended to be part of an exchange deal involving the Salvador De Madariaga building, which currently houses the offices of parliament staff.
However, that plan was abandoned following backlash from the Socialist and Green groups who criticised the idea of acquiring expensive new premises amid a cost of living crisis across Europe.
In May, a majority of the Bureau, which includes the Parliament’s President Roberta Metsola, 14 Vice-Presidents and 5 Quaestors, instead agreed to a long-term lease of the building at €700,000 per year, with a view to eventually purchasing it, though without setting a date of purchase.
The lease had been presented as good value, far below a market rental value of nearly €3.4 million, and was supported by the centre-right EPP, liberal Renew and the conservative ECR groups but opposed by the Socialists, Greens and the Left.
However, there are concerns over practicality as officials say that the building does not have suitable conference rooms and, therefore, could not be used to hold trilogue meetings – the inter-institutional negotiations between MEPs, national governments and the European Commission.
At least €10.3 million would need to be spent on offices, IT and security before MEPs could move in, EURACTIV understands.
János Allenbach-Ammann contributed reporting.
[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald/Alice Taylor]
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Source: euractiv.com
