SIR,
Again the UK press have covered the issue of the mass monthly exodus of 736 MEPs and their three thousand odd staff on a 220 mile journey to Strasbourg.
This is something I have argued for a long time, having raised it in Parliament to much support and expressing my anguish at the flagrant waste of money to the media.
The problem however, is that it is actually a constitutional matter and thus takes a lot of unpicking to rectify.
By EU Treaty Law, MEPS must sit for 12 weeks in Strasbourg.
To revert this legislation all the member states must agree unanimously to change it, and I simply cannot see France backing down and giving up the huge boost to the Alsatian economy that the Strasbourg Parliamentary week represents.
It does however underscore the erroneous nature of EU legislation, where one-size-fits-all policy making benefits nobody, or national interests end up subverting what is best for other member states.
The fact that it costs the taxpayer £150 million a year to run Parliament in Strasbourg is an irrelevance to the bureaucrats in Brussels, who waste billions of pounds annually via their very existence.
John Bufton
(Ukip MEP for Wales)