Conservative MEP fights to stop wasteful EU trips to Strasbourg

East Midlands Conservative MEP Emma McClarkin has this week continued her campaign against the Strasbourg ‘travelling circus’, by signing a pledge to fight for a single seat for the European Parliament.

Most of the European Parliament’s work is done at its huge complex of offices and debating chambers in Brussels, but once a month 754 MEPs, 3,000 staff and 25 trucks carrying documents and equipment all decamp to Strasbourg in France.

The wasteful trek costs £160 million a year and needlessly pumps 20,000 tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere.

The pledge that Miss McClarkin has signed reads:

“If elected Member of the European Parliament in May 2014, I pledge to work for greater efficiency by demanding an end to the European Parliament’s three working places arrangement, and giving it a logical Single Seat – in Brussels.”

If the Single Seat campaign is successful, it would mean MEPs would have just two places of work – in Brussels and in the Region they represent.

Miss McClarkin said:

“It’s time this travelling circus came to an end once and for all. If re-elected next month I would continue to campaign hard to end the wasteful journeys to Strasbourg.

“The waste of money and resources is staggering, yet amazingly some MEPs don’t care. For example, UKIP – who seem to have a policy of voting against everything in the EU, regardless of whether it’s in Britain’s interest – didn’t vote for having a single seat when MEPs voted on it late last year.

“This is why European Elections matter. How people vote will decide what kind of representation they get. We Conservatives are fighting hard to stop waste in the EU, and if re-elected next month I will continue that fight.”