Politicians defend Strasbourg's status as 'European Capital'

Thirteen elected officials from the Alsace region this weekend co-signed a letter to French President Francois Hollande calling for Strasbourg to become the site of a "eurozone parliament."

President Hollande said he wished to see a parliament specifically for countries in the eurozone in his Bastille Day speech last week, a call which he repeated on Sunday. The Strasbourg politicians, from both right and left, want to defend the city's status as "European Capital."

Strasbourg already hosts plenary sessions of the wider European Parliament (EP) and is its official home even though most committee work is actually conducted in Brussels.

"We ask you to lay the foundation stone of a more democratic euro area in Strasbourg," the politicians wrote in the letter which was made public this weekend.

The co-signatories include the city's socialist mayor Roland Ries, Eurometropole president Robert Herrmann, and vice president Catherine Trautmann. Mrs. Trautmann, a former French culture minister, is also in charge of a task force overseeing Strasbourg's hosting of the EP.

In the Journal du Dimanche, President Hollande said on Sunday that the idea "of a government of the euro area" with a "specific budget and a Parliament to ensure democratic control" would be a response to criticisms that the European institutions still suffer from a democratic deficit, particularly in the wake of the Greek debt crisis.

Hollande's proposal was seized upon by former Strasbourg mayor Fabienne Keller, who rallied her colleagues to make an immediate bid for Strasbourg to be the seat of a new parliament for the 19 eurozone countries.

In their letter, the 13 elected officials state that "such an opportunity for debate that takes better account of people and their aspirations" appeared "essential." "It is time to move towards a deeper Europe, economically, politically and democratically," they wrote.

As the seat of the EP for the 28-country European Union (EU), as well as being home to the Council of Europe with 47 member countries, Strasbourg is, they insisted, "a city that embodies a certain vision of Europe, complementary to that of the European Commission and the other European bodies."