Brussels, 25/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 24 September, MEP and former mayor of Strasbourg Catherine Trautmann (S&D, France) regretted the proposals of the Belgian minister for foreign affairs, Didier Reynders, who argued for an end to the plenary sessions in Strasbourg. These proposals, “calling for the European Parliament to leave Strasbourg misjudge the treaties and constitute a rupture”, Trautmann said. She recalls that the decision to hold the plenary sessions in Strasbourg dates from the Edinburgh compromise of 1992, when the advocate general of the Court of Justice clarified, at the beginning of September, the rules of the seat of the European Parliament (see EUROPE 10683). “Why does Didier Reynders allow himself - for the first time on the part of a Belgian minister - to break this agreement and this legal rule?”, Trautmann asked. Last week on TV Bruxelles Reynders had argued in favour of “stopping the shuttles” because the monthly move is “very costly”. He had also thought it necessary to strengthen the place of Strasbourg “on other points like human rights” - the capital of Alsace already being home to the Court of Human Rights and the Council of Europe (our translation throughout). (CG/transl.fl)