The European University instead of the parliament in Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the city for all kinds of European institutions. One of those is very unpractical: the parliament. Better swap this for an institution with users that stay in the city.
This Dutch petition will formally go from the Netherlands to the French ambassador to Strasbourg. If you are living in another member state please copy a translation of this petition to a local, EU based, petitioning platform in your own language and contact us to coordinate so we can jointly hand over the petitions on the same day all over Europe as a European event.
Petition
We
Europeans
establish that:
- Strasbourg is a city with over twenty European institutions
- Though symbolically nice it is very unpractical to let the parliament convene in Strasbourg.
- Education is of the utmost importance for future generations and therefore European education is for Strasbour of the utmost importance.
- Strasbourg is perfect as a student town.
- A student town brings more to the local knowledge economy than the travelling circus of parliamentarians staying in Strasbourg against their will.
- The reputation of Strasbourg gets further damaged among Europeans elsewhere in the EU with every session of the parliament.
- This situation is a recurring argument in objections against the EU.
- Also the hospitality industry in Strasbourg prefers continuity over three weeks of under capacity and one week of top/sold out capacity.
and request
the city of Strasbourg, through a democratic process, with participation of the inhabitants, choose for a European University at the expense of sessions of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
and express this choice ceremonially with emphasis in a public meeting to the president of France, preferably in the presence of the heads of state of the other EU member states.