Interview: "Role of European Parliament must be rethought," says French ex-MEP Trautmann

Catherine Trautmann, former Member of European Parliament (MEP) for France and Vice-President of the Eurometropole of Strasbourg, believes the European Union (EU)'s parliamentary assembly needs to be reconsidered.

To clarify its place in the political functioning of the EU and to end a long battle over its Strasbourg seat, the European Parliament (EP) must have its role reaffirmed, Trautmann said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.

"The battle for the seat of European Parliament in Strasbourg and the creation of a Parliament of the Eurozone are part of a political and democratic struggle. The role of the EP must be rethought without it becoming a third wheel," declared the former MEP, charged with the economic development of European and International outreach in her post as the Vice-President of the Eurometropole of Strasbourg.

"Chasing after the European Commission and the Council" can only lead to an impasse for the EP, whose "role is more and more marginalized," Trautmann said.

The Eurometropole of Strasbourg, born on Jan. 1, 2015 following territorial reform laws, is the successor to the Urban Community of Strasbourg and represents close to 500,000 inhabitants, or 25 percent of the population of Alsace. Its name carries the specific aim of making evident and consecrating the European dimension of Strasbourg, home to the seat of the EP, the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights.

Its Vice-President Catherine Trautmann, also responsible for the Task Force for the Seat of the European Parliament, deplored the "weakness of governance" of an EU calcified in "institutions that are more and more technocratic and closed off." She saw it as a weakness of governance that the EU's monetary, economic and migratory crises have cruelly revealed.

"We are at a crossroads. The choice of a democratic and political Europe must be clearly confirmed, not only in reaffirming the role of the EP and its seat in Strasbourg but also in putting in place a Parliament of the Euro Zone," said Trautmann, who left the Parliament unwillingly after the last European elections in May 2014, having been relegated to second on the list of Socialist candidates by party leadership who preferred a media-friendly union leader.

Trautmann, elected to the EP for the first time in 1989, holds Strasbourg's detractors in poor regard for finding the upkeep of the parliamentary seat in the Alsatian capital to be "costly and dysfunctional" and for chronically feeding the polemics against it. Even so, in Strasbourg it is now customary to refer to the debate as the "battle of the seat."

"If the European Parliament is limited in its reach, it isn't because its seat is based in Strasbourg. The attacks of which it is the target aim to diminish its role against those of other institutions and to call into question the model of an integrated and political Europe in order to benefit a Europe in which those who are least European can carry the most weight," deplored the former MEP.

The EP, which brings together 751 MEPs elected by universal direct suffrage and representing 380 million Europeans in 28 states, holds its plenary sessions in Strasbourg, while committees and certain additional plenary sessions take place in Brussels. The "Anti-Strasbourgers" argue that this "transhumance" costs between 100 and 120 million euros.

"This battle against Strasbourg does a disservice to the Parliament and the European Union! It has lasted 20 years! What a waste of time," continues Trautmann. "In Strasbourg, the Parliament is at home. It has the power to convoke and run contradictory debates in order to fill its role as a counterweight, to deliberate and vote in total independence. It is in Strasbourg that it has won its prerogatives. Rather than say what Europe does, it would be better to ask oneself what member states of the EU do," she added.

The former MEP insisted on the significance -- not only symbolically but also politically -- of the choice of her city as European capital: "Strasbourg is the seat of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament first for historical reasons linked to Franco-German reconciliation."

"This city was chosen because it is actually not a state capital. It is the only city to host a European political institution and not be a state capital. It's here that the Parliament can act in complete independence, far from the lobbies of Brussels or Luxembourg," she pleaded.

According to the Eurometropole's Vice-President, a parliament of the Eurozone based in Strasbourg -- an idea defended by French President Francois Hollande though no details have been given yet -- would allow to be put in place "a counterbalance to the club of Eurozone countries and the European Central Bank (ECB) established in Frankfurt."

"There is still no agency for independent oversight of ECB policy. If we only take into account economic and monetary policy without taking into account their consequences, we are only walking on one foot!" said Trautmann.

"We cannot have decisions which concern economies, financial balances, national budgets and, as a result, taxation without an institution to provide counterbalance, to exercise oversight, and to validate decisions after having discussed them," the former MEP said.

"The member states are reluctant to accept that a transnational parliament must interfere with their individual vision and that it's even the power of Europe. It's actually for this that the parliamentarians of the Euro Zone must be able to meet with the legitimacy and the authority of a parliament and not that of a subcommittee or whatnot...," she argued.

Questioned by Xinhua on the relations between China, Europe and the rest of the world, the Vice-President of the Eurometropole -- who is further responsible for the economic strategy and preparation for Strasbourg Eco 2020, economic promotion and territorial marketing -- invoked the economic stakes, but also offered the perspective of a former minister of culture, the role she performed in the government of French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin from 1997 until 2000.

"France, particularly, has always been fascinated by China and its culture. The relations between the two countries are evolving in a significant manner. The dialogue is much more frequent, and more even as well. Cooperation between cities, especially, has led to very interesting results," observed Trautmann. "It's less the case regarding investment," she noted, before underlining that "a mutual respect for each other's modes of functioning will permit us to proceed."

"China, long viewed as the world's workshop, evolves very quickly. It is a country in profound development. Europe, like the world, must understand well that what happens in China concerns everyone, and that China's problem, for the world as it is for itself, is its size and its population," she concluded. Enditem