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Xinhua, 27.4.2006: EU legislators threaten to take Strasbourg rent row to court
EU legislators threaten to take Strasbourg rent row to court
www.chinaview.cn 2006-04-27 23:18:45
BRUSSELS, April 27 (Xinhua) -- The European Parliament has threatened to bring in fraud investigators after reports had surfaced that the city of Strasbourg was charging the European Parliament an inflated rental for two buildings in the Alsatian capital, Belgian media reported on Thursday.
European Union legislators were shocked to learn on Tuesday that up to a quarter of the annual rent, or 2.7 million euros (15.88 million U.S. dollars), paid from Brussels to the landlords of the Winston Churchill and the Salvador de Madriaga buildings, may have gone into the municipal coffers without their knowledge.
However, the city of Strasbourg has categorically denied the allegations and is threatening to take the worst "slanderers" to court.
The parliament's budgetary control committee has decided that the purchase of the two buildings, or further rent money, is to be put on hold, and has also decided not to sign off its annual accounts until the Strasbourg fiasco has been resolved.
Speaking at Wednesday's plenary in Brussels, the EU's parliamentarian Piia-Noora Kauppi from Finland urged the parliament to find out if the city of Strasbourg has been unlawfully pocketing EU rent money.
"If this should be the case, the European Parliament must take the city of Strasbourg to court," she said.
The buildings, hosting EU legislators for a monthly plenary session, are owned by a Dutch pension fund which lets them to the city, which in turn sublets them to the parliament.
Strasbourg, however, appears to have kept a substantial share of the rent before remitting the balance to the owners.
Rejecting accusations of irregularities and fraud, Strasbourg Mayor Fabienne Keller said the city would take legal action against the worst "slanderers."
The German tabloid Bild Zeitung earlier reported that the city had over-evaluated the buildings by some 200 million euros (250 million dollars), and that an Austrian EU legislator had declared that the matter "smells of corruption."
"Dealing with such scandalous accusations, we will press charges against the concerned media and against the author of these remarks ", mayor Keller said, reiterating in a press release that the city had charged the European Parliament according to "market prices".
The rent overcharging allegations have triggered an internal probe into parliamentary accountants and is set to re-ignite the debate over the scrapping of the seat in Strasbourg.
The Strasbourg location costs the EU 200 million euros (250 million U.S. dollars) a year in travel fees and causes logistics related strife for EU parliamentarians and their assistants. Enditem
Editor: Luan Shanglin
Erschienen als Meldung der chinesischen Nachrichtenagentur "Xinhua", 27.4.2006.
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