A €20 million game of scaffolding Tetris might soon become the European Parliament’s newest spectacle. The renovation of the central Spaak building of the European Parliament’s Brussels headquarters will begin shortly, and MEPs are now discussing what to do with the ‘mini-plenary’ debates that take place over one or two days every month.
According to internal documents obtained by the British Telegraph, one of the leading plans involves allocating an extra €20 million—on top of the over €450 million renovation costs—solely for dismantling and then rebuilding the scaffolding for each session.
“Maintaining additional part-sessions on the construction site would require special arrangements to be made before and after each session to ensure safety, access, and support,” the document from the Parliament’s Bureau says, adding:
This has an impact on the overall duration and budget of the works, estimated at 6-12 months and EUR 20-22 million.
Other possible solutions include using two smaller rooms and having the MEPs connected via video links, or even relocating entirely to the Parliament’s Strasbourg seat. Normal plenary sessions already take place in Strasbourg, normally for five days each month, with this “traveling circus” costing EU taxpayers over €100 million each year.
Some (especially right-wing) MEPs have been calling for the European Parliament to abandon Strasbourg altogether to save costs, arguing that the Brussels building has the capacity to accommodate the plenary. Now the situation is somewhat reversed, as it is the Brussels chamber that will be closed for the three-year renovation period.
Still, lengthening the project and adding tens of millions of additional costs just to keep using the room once a month is “comical,” said Danish MEP Anders Vistisen, the chief whip of the main right-wing opposition bloc, the Patriots for Europe (PfE). Hoping it will not pass, Vistisen said:
The idea of scaffolding being put up and down every month for a single day’s work is comical in the extreme.
It would be like a scene in a Benny Hill comedy sketch. But when it’s not their personal money, MEPs are content to spend it freely.
The Henri-Paul Spaak building in Brussels first opened its doors to the Parliament in 1993 and has been waiting to be renovated since 2012, when an internal report found that it fell short of the ‘Eurocodes’ of structural integrity. The newer documents also add that it does not conform to EU green rules, which was part of the reason the renovation plans were finally approved.
The reconstruction of the building will cost at least €455 million and take place over a minimum of three years, but additional plans—such as the monthly scaffolding removal—could lengthen the project significantly.
According to the plans, the renovations should be finished no later than 2030, to be reopened at the 200th anniversary of Belgium’s independence.
