STRASBOURG — Senior MEPs are considering an offer from French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne to rent a new office block for €700,000 per year that would solidify her country’s grip on the European Parliament’s controversial second home.
In a letter that Borne sent to Parliament’s President Roberta Metsola on May 3, seen by POLITICO, the French government offered to rent out a brand new Osmose office block to the European Parliament after buying it in an elaborate scheme that could cost French taxpayers tens of millions of euros.
The French letter frames the proposal as “for the benefit of the European Parliament” and an “advantageous offer,” but whether or not that is true, if accepted, it would be a major win for the French government, as it would cement the EU chamber’s presence in the city.
The so-called Osmose building is a state-of-the-art office block that boasts 15,000m2 of space, not far from the Parliament’s hemicycle in Strasbourg.
Hundreds of MEPs fly into Strasbourg — the Parliament’s official seat according to the EU treaties — for four days each month for a whistle-stop tour of voting and negotiations. But most EU officials, MEPs and parliamentary assistants spend the majority of their time in the Belgian capital Brussels, where the other two main EU institutions are based.
Under Borne’s plan, after purchasing the building, the French state would then rent out the building on a 99-year lease, on what Borne called “favourable financial terms,” of €700,000 per year. Borne wrote that an estimated yet-to-be-confirmed market rental fee that such a building could command was €3,400,000.
As reported by POLITICO’s Brussels Playbook on Tuesday, Metsola and the 14 vice presidents of the European Parliament discussed the proposal at a closed-door meeting Monday night, but did not reach a decision on whether to accept the offer.
“The French State is ready to make a further investment and to purchase the Osmose building in the next few months,” Borne wrote in the letter.
Borne said the purchase would be at market value and her letter did not mention a price tag for buying Osmose. This would nevertheless mean a substantial investment for French taxpayers, as France only owned a 49 percent share in the €57.2 million building in 2021, according to official documents.
Watch this space
Some in the Parliament sound positive about the French offer. “The French came back with an offer to rent, which is extremely advantageous. We have an assessment that has been made showing we need space,” said an EU official, who asked not to be identified as they are not authorized to speak publicly.
“While negotiations still have to start on the details, what’s on the table is a good landing zone that balances needs with costs,” the official added.
The top 15 MEPs who meet in the Parliament’s so-called bureau — the chamber’s top internal decision-making body — are likely to return to the subject in June, having tasked Secretary General Alessandro Chiocchetti with finding out more details about the French plan.
MEPs who attended the meeting sounded hesitant.
“The debates will definitely continue,” said Czech Green MEP Marcel Kolaja, who was present in his role as quaestor, meaning he works on financial and administrative matters. “My political group has concerns over the efficiency of the cost. There have been questions raised by numerous vice presidents across the board,” he told POLITICO.
“I’m not saying it is a bad price for the offer. The question is if that offer suits the needs of the European Parliament, because one should not accept offers just because they are good. Also they need to fit your needs.”
Rainer Wieland, an influential MEP from the European People’s Party, said as he left the meeting on Monday night: “We have to scrutinize it.”
Other MEPs are adamant that the Parliament should not touch the French offer. “We don’t need this building,” said Daniel Freund, a German Green MEP who is his group’s lead on an ongoing audit of the Parliament’s 2021 budget. “We shouldn’t buy it. We shouldn’t lease it. We shouldn’t take it as a gift,” he wrote to POLITICO in a statement.
“The exact clauses of the lease will of course have to be set out in full at a later date,” Borne wrote toward the end of the letter, adding that she hopes it will receive a favorable response.
MEP Stéphane Séjourné, who leads the liberal Renew group that is aligned with French President Emmanuel Macron, declined to comment when asked about the Osmose offer at a press conference.
“I’ll be simple in the non-response I am going to give you,” he told reporters in Strasbourg. “I have decided to remove myself from this subject being French and the head of a group with 103 MEPs and 25 nationalities,” he said, adding that it’s not a question for him but for the Parliament’s president and 14 vice presidents.
Complex issue
Strasbourg’s Mayor Jeanne Barseghian put a positive spin on the building in an interview with POLITICO that took place in April before the French government offer came in, saying the building represents “an extra possibility for the European Parliament or even for the other institutions because it could be used for trilogues” — negotiations between the EU institutions on legislation.
Currently, the Parliament is having to rent out extra space in Strasbourg from the Council of Europe, which is not an EU body, in order to have enough workspace.
“The Osmose building is up to the latest environmental standards,” said Barseghian, who is a Green politician. She even floated the notion that the EU institution could buy the building outright.
The Osmose complex was expected to bring €3.1 million to owners, Icade, a French property group, and Caisse des Dépôts, the French public sector financial institution, according to previous official estimates, and help France maintain the EU Parliament’s presence in its eastern city. Most of its buildings have remained empty since it first opened in 2021.
Paris had first urged Metsola to buy the Osmose building, and there had been talk last year, which has since died way, to retrofit one of the Parliament’s existing buildings into a hotel.
The French permanent representation to the EU, the French foreign affairs ministry and the French prime minister’s office did not reply to requests for comment.
