Seat of the European Parliament in Strasbourg

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The town of Strasbourg, France, is the official seat of the European Parliament which meets there for twelve sessions a year lasting about four days each.^[1] The European Parliament owns four buildings of moderately large to very large size in the Quartier Européen in the north-west of the city^[2], where they coexist with the seven main buildings of the Council of Europe and the headquarters of Arte. European building in the area started as early as 1949.

[edit] Louise Weiss

The Louise Weiss building is located in the Wacken area of Strasbourg, south of Schiltigheim, between the 1920s worker's suburban colony (Cité ouvrière) Cité Ungemach and the 1950s buildings of the Strasbourg fair, some of which had to be torn down in order to make way for the Immeuble du Parlement européen 4, its technical name. Built at a cost of 470 million euros at the intersection of the Ill and the Marne-Rhine Canal, it houses the hemicycle for plenary sessions, the largest of any European institution (750 seats - expanded to 785 - for MEPs and 680 for visitors),^[7] 18 other assembly rooms as well as a total of 1133 parliamentary offices. With its surface of 220,000m² and its distinctive 60m tower,^[8] it is one of the biggest and most visible buildings of Strasbourg. The Louise Weiss was designed by the Paris-based team of architects Architecture Studio Europe. After the project was approved at an international contest in 1991, work, commissioned by the Société d'Aménagement et d'Équipement de la Région de Strasbourg on behalf of the Urban Community of Strasbourg, started a few years later, with up to twelve cranes at the time on what was one of the biggest building sites of the decades in Europe. The inauguration of the building took place on 14 December 1999 by French President Jacques Chirac and Parliament President Nicole Fontaine.

The voluntarily unfinished aspect of the tower ^[9] carries heavy symbolism, as it is oriented eastwards, i.e. towards eastern Europe, of which by the time of the completion of the building no country had yet entered the EU. Urban legends of mostly eschatological inspiration have it that the building was designed after Pieter Brueghel the Elder's paintings of the Tower of Babel (the Vienna version rather than the Rotterdam version).^[10] Allegedly, both the painting(s) and the building were inspired by the ruins of the Colosseum.^[11]

Through a covered footbridge over the Ill, the Louise Weiss communicates with the

[edit] Winston Churchill and Salvador de Madariaga

The Winston Churchill building (48°35′44″N 7°46′12″E / 48.595507, 7.769925 (Winston Churchill building)) (IPE 1) is located across the river on Avenue President Schuman. It houses administration and support facilities. The Salvador de Madariaga building (48°35′42″N 7°46′06″E / 48.595074, 7.768294 (Salvador de Madariaga building)) (IPE 2), along Quai du Bassin de l'Ill, is located next to the Winston Churchill building. Both buildings actually form one single complex with a surface of 58,400m², built at a cost of 81 million euros and designed in a modernistic style characterised by a convoluted, serpentine architecture, a relative height and fassades of dark glass ^[12].

The buildings were at the centre of controversy regarding overpayment of rent.^[13] They were eventually bought by the Parliament in 2006.^[14]

In October 2007 it was discovered that the buildings contained a larger amount of asbestos than previously thought before they were purchased. However the amount is still not deemed to be a public health risk and is limited to certain areas. The previous owner of the building may be responsible for finding and removing the asbestos within the building. This was not the first such incident as bacteria causing Legionnaires has been discovered in the water system of the complex after a number of officials reported in ill. The bacteria had been allowed to develop due to the Strasbourg complex being used only four months of the year.^[15]

[edit] Pierre Pflimlin

The heart-shaped, comparatively low building at the crossing of Avenue du Président Robert Schuman and Allée Spach (IPE 3) (48°35′42″N 7°46′13″E / 48.595031, 7.770314 (Pierre Pflimlin building)), built in the early 1990s as a press and media center (Centre de presse et d'information) at a cost of 38 million euros^[16], has been given the name of Pierre Pflimlin on July 6, 2007 ^[17]. The smallest of the buildings (21,000 m²), it is also the only one not to be next to the river or the canal. It now houses among other things the translation staff.

[edit] Other & Former Strasbourg Buildings

Until the EU was to be extended from 12 to 15 members, which ultimately happened in 1995, and the Parliament consequently needed a larger assembly room, the EP used to share with the Council of Europe the hemicycle of the Palace of Europe (built to serve exactly that purpose and inaugurated on January 28, 1977), which could lead to confusion for TV-audiences between both institutions, especially so since both the Council and the EU share a common flag. In the time before (1952 – 1977), both institutions shared an assembly room in a provisory, concrete building of purely functional architecture, the Maison de l'Europe ("House of Europe")^{[18] [19]}, inaugurated in 1950, that stood where there is now the lawn leading up to the Palace of Europe.^{[20] [21]}

[edit] See also

• Location of European Union institutions
• Espace Léopold (Parliament in Brussels)
• European Parliament in Luxembourg
• Justus Lipsius building (Council of the European Union)
• Berlaymont building (European Commission)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Visiting Parliament EuroParl website
• Naming of the buildings EuroParl website
• Seat of the EP European Navigator
• Website about the Strasbourg building