On the evening of Thursday 5 March, David Sassoli, the President of the European Parliament, took the decision to move the European Parliament's plenary session in Strasbourg next week to Brussels because of the risks associated with the 'COVID-19' coronavirus epidemic.
“I decided that the necessary security conditions are not in place for the usual transfer of the European Parliament to Strasbourg for the plenary session next week”, Sassoli said in a statement.
Sassoli explained that he had received “an updated report from the European Parliament’s Medical Service on the evolution of COVID-19”, informing him that “the health risks are considered to be significantly higher if Parliament’s plenary session next week takes place in Strasbourg”.
On Friday, the French authorities acknowledged the unilateral decision communicated to them by the European Parliament. A French diplomat told EUROPE that a commitment has been made for an additional session to be held in Strasbourg at a later date to meet the obligations of the European treaty.
Decision criticised by a number of French MEPs. Although Sassoli said this was a precautionary measure, a number of MEPs, mostly from the French delegation of the EPP group, criticised this decision.
“This precautionary half-measure is utterly absurd”, said Arnaud Danjean (EPP, France), pointing out that the meeting of ambassadors to the EU (COREPER), which was due to take place in Brussels on Friday, had been cancelled because of the coronavirus (see other news).
He said that there is no indication that Brussels is less exposed to the virus than Strasbourg. His colleague Nathalie Colin-Oesterlé is of the same opinion. She believes that there is no justification for this decision from the point of view of health security, but that the decision is “a way of yet again undermining the headquarters in Strasbourg”.
Anne Sander, a third member of the French EPP delegation, tweeted that “if the health situation linked to COVID-19 is too serious in our organisation, then let's close it”, and called for the session to be cancelled rather than relocated.
However, at the customary press conference before the plenary session, EPP group spokesman Pedro López de Pablo assured MEPs that the group supported Sassoli's decision.
At the time of going to press, 423 people were infected with the virus in France and seven had died, compared with 50 cases in Belgium, including three in the European institutions, with no deaths. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)