26/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - Strasbourg - Daul and Trautmann of Alsace trigger sacrosanct unity. In response to the offensive by supporters of the single seat launched by Edward McMillan-Scott (ALDE, UK) on the sidelines of the plenary sessions in Strasbourg this week, the French president of the EPP Group, Joseph Daul, and the head of the French S&D delegation, Catherine Trautmann, rose to the fray on Thursday 25 October, calling for unity in the defence of Strasbourg as a seat for the European parliament shared with Brussels. In a joint statement they explain that, given the enormous means deployed by the anti-Strasbourg campaign, they wish to reaffirm their attachment to abiding by the law and the treaties. The supreme interest of Strasbourg's European vocation should go beyond French partisan approaches, they say, as it is the presence of an EU institution in France that is at stake. The call for united action against a campaign that is harmful to the institution itself, they say, and which could be disputed before the Court of Justice. (EH/transl.jl)