A chartered train carrying hundreds of MEPs and their staff to the Strasbourg plenary took a wrong turn after leaving Brussels and ended up at Paris Disneyland on Monday, October 17th—prompting jokes at the expense of frustrated parliamentarians.
According to Politico, first spotting the unusual itinerary, the mishap caused a 45-minute delay in the schedule. According to stranded MEPs, the driver had to go to the other end of the train, restarting the journey in the other direction.
Getting lost on the monthly migration between the Parliament’s Belgian and French headquarters would have been embarrassing in itself, but ending up at Marne la Vallée Chessy—the Paris suburb where the French Disneyland is located—only strengthened the image of the ‘Mickey Mouse Parliament,’ a criticism frequently used by those who argue the institution is all talk and no action, and therefore isn’t necessary to maintain.
“We’re NOT a Mickey Mouse Parliament,” wrote the German MEP Daniel Freund (Greens)—notorious for his neurotic, leftist criticism of conservative governments around Europe—clearly annoyed by the situation.
Others, however, took the unforeseen turn of events much more lightly. “It’s pretty much all-around laughter here at the madness of the situation,” one of the parliamentary assistants said, while others complained they couldn’t get out for a quick ride at least.
Another assistant, Emanuel Foulon, shared his location on X, joking that the Parliament should now perhaps adopt Disney’s motto as its own: “Where dreams come true.”
But while everyone’s having a good laugh, the little detour did revitalize the age-old debate about the necessity of the European Parliament’s Strasbourg headquarters.
For understandable reasons, the existence of the second building is a question of prestige and income for France, but all the other countries increasingly question the wider logic from an environmental and financial perspective.
According to EU auditors, the monthly move of 705 MEPs with thousands of staff and their files between Brussels and Strasbourg—aptly dubbed as the “traveling circus”—costs about €114 million every year. And not everyone’s as environmentally conscious to take the train, of course, as about two-thirds of the MEPs travel by plane to Frankfurt and then take private shuttles.
Furthermore, every five-day session costs €3.9 million in the Strasbourg building—€1 million more than if it was held in Brussels. This puts the annual bill for the twelve meetings at €47 million, whereas the same thing could be organized in Brussels for only €35.6 million, without the need to move.
This means European taxpayers pay at least €125 million (not including the Strasbourg building’s maintenance costs) for MEPs’ trip to Disneyland for no logical reason at all.
“The image of the EU Parliament as a peripatetic circus getting more real by the hour,” Alberto Alemanno, the founder of Good Lobby, commented on this whole trainwreck.
