14/12/2020 (Agence Europe) – For the first time since the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic in Europe in February 2020, the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, opened the plenary session on Monday 14 December from the hemicycle in Strasbourg, the seat of the European institution. “I am here today at the headquarters of our institution to open the December plenary session with a message of solidarity with the citizens of Strasbourg and the French authorities. (...) Strasbourg is our capital”, he said, paying tribute to the Alsatian capital which was hit by a terrorist attack on 11 December 2018 and severely affected during the first wave of coronavirus. The European Parliament headquarters was also used as a screening centre for the people of Strasbourg (see EUROPE 12520/18). Mr Sassoli also confirmed that Parliament would pay tribute on 2 February 2021 in Strasbourg to the recently deceased former French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. (MB)