Rent row between EU lawmakers, Strasbourg flares up

The European Parliament added fuel to a growing rent dispute with the City of Strasbourg as lawmakers decided to look into allegations they are being fleeced.

Euro-deputies voted massively in favour of not signing off on the parliament's 2004 accounts for six months to give them time to look into irregularities in the cost of renting two buildings in Strasbourg.

"There are solid reasons to believe that we are dealing with a serious case of fraud with a cost of at least 27 million euros to the EU budget," said conservative MEP Valdis Dombrovskis.

The row centres on a plan by the parliament to buy the two buildings from a Dutch company, SCI-Erasme, the current owner, which lets them to Strasbourg, which in turn sublets them to the parliament.

A price of 136 million euros (170 million dollars) was provisionally agreed based on the rent parliament pays.

But the assembly's budgetary control committee now believes it has uncovered evidence the parliament has been overpaying for years and decided to freeze further payments as well as the plans to buy the buildings.

Liberal Democrat MEP Alexander Alvaro said: "These revelations are irritating and damaging to our previous relationship of trust with the city of Strasbourg and have led to more questions being asked about the cost of parliament maintaining multiple seats."

To the disgust of cost-conscious critics inside and outside the parliament, the assembly uses its Strasbourg headquarters for only one week per month, spending most of the time in Brussels.

However, past campaigns to unseat the Strasbourg headquarters have met with no success because a permanent move to Brussels would require the agreement of all EU governments, including Paris, which is reluctant to give up the prestigious institution.