Sir: This is the perfect time for the European Parliament to stop its ridiculous monthly travelling circus to Strasbourg, having just formed a new climate change committee to develop policy options for the 27 countries in the European Union.
The first study of the climate change impacts of having two European Parliament bases warns that having two "seats" produces an extra 20,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year - more than some countries - and such practice is damaging the environment and undermining EU efforts to cut CO2 emissions by 20 per cent by 2020.
This farcical uprooting involves the relocation of 2,000 parliamentary staff and interpreters, nearly 1,000 assistants, journalists and lobbyists, 785 MEPs and 15 truckloads of trunks and documents every month. This is a pointless trip done only to appease the French. The fact that six mini-plenary sessions will be held in Brussels this year proves that there is the capacity to vote in Brussels.
The time has come for common sense to dictate that enough is enough, that this "travelling circus" can no longer be justified on environmental grounds and is just pouring money down the drain - around £200m a year.
