Strasbourg, 22/02/2005 (Agence Europe) - The initiative of a group of FDP MEPs to have a single headquarters for the European Parliament was certainly not welcomed by French MEPs, who received vigorous support from other MEPs, including some German ones. The German liberals Alexander Alvaro and Silvana Koch-Mehrin launched an action entitled “No need for two headquarters”, deeming it absurd that President Bush visit the European institutions in Brussels while the MEPs were 400 kilometres away in Strasbourg. There must be an end to this “travelling circus”, said Mr Alvaro. Ms Koch-Mehrin, who emphasised that Strasbourg should certainly remain a “European city”, suggested that this symbolic nature could be guaranteed by a regular address by the President of the Commission, like that of the US President on the state of the union. In addition to this, the current Parliament building should be made home to a university, she said. This is not good enough for CDU MEP Daniel Caspary, who insisted: Strasbourg is and remains the headquarters of the Parliament, it is the symbol of Franco-German reconciliation and transparency, in contrast to the bureaucracy of Brussels.