HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Kauppi spends a few quiet minutes in her office with son Otso-Antero
Posted Sunday, May 30, 2004; 14:48 BST STRASBOURG:THE STRUGGLE FOR REFORM
The European Parliament complex looms on Strasbourg's north side, a glass-and-steel behemoth ringed by a moatlike road and guarded by unnaturally tidy rows of immature trees, which look vaguely like green and brown barbed wire. Kauppi says the massive exterior has the aura of "a medieval castle," cold, forbidding and inaccessible — an apt description of how most people see the E.U. itself.
But what many in the Parliament think is truly medieval is the setup that requires them to pack up and move from their regular offices in Brussels to Strasbourg once a month. The bizarre commute — which involves each M.E.P.'s office packing all they need for the week into giant metal trunks that are shipped, unpacked for a few days, then repacked and sent back to Brussels — is the product of a typical E.U. backroom deal. When the Belgian capital was chosen as the E.U.'s home in 1958, France blocked an agreement until it got the Parliament's Strasbourg outpost as a consolation prize. The cost to taxpayers: €200 million a year.
This is one E.U. excess Kauppi would like to stamp out. After scarfing down a chicken-curry sandwich, she heads to the members' bar to meet the "young bloods" of the Campaign for Parliament Reform (CPR), a group of M.E.P.s she helped found four years ago. The business at hand is the afternoon press conference at which the CPR will challenge M.E.P.s to sign a pre-election pledge to do away with the monthly trek to Strasbourg, change the expense policy so that deputies are reimbursed for what they actually spend rather than a full-economy fare, and strengthen the M.E.P.s' code of conduct by setting out responsibilities, especially on perks and expenses.
The reformists score a victory the next day when M.E.P.s okay some tough new rules the CPR favors, including reimbursement of travel at cost. But they lose more than they gain. M.E.P.s nix a call for members to submit proof that their office allowances are spent in line with the rules, and decide not to issue a reminder (not a rule) that 50% of members' expenses should be backed by receipts. The move to drop the Strasbourg commute is roundly defeated.
Despite setbacks like these, Parliament President Pat Cox says the CPR "has been a positive force for change," praising it for "maintaining pressure to modernize Parliament." And Kauppi is unfazed. Reform "feels like mission impossible," she says. "I guess it's not — people thought the Berlin Wall would be there forever, too — but it would take a miracle. We're banging our heads against a wall, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't speak out. If you lose that idealism, you should leave politics."
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