Seat of the European Parliament in Strasbourg Seat of the European Parliament in Strasbourg The city of Strasbourg (France) is the official seat of the European Parliament. The institution is legally bound to meet there twelve sessions a year lasting about four days each. Other work takes place in Brussels and Luxembourg City (see Location of European Union institutions for more information). Also all votes of the European Parliament must take place in Strasbourg. "Additional" sessions and committees take place in Brussels. Although "de facto" a majority of the Parliament's work is now geared to its Brussels site, it is legally bound to keep Strasbourg as its
European institutions in Strasbourg in Brussels and Luxembourg city. The split arrangement has caused financial, environmental and practical difficulties, with the Strasbourg location usually (though not universally) being cited as the extraneous location rather than Brussels. The École nationale d'administration, founded in 1945 in Paris, was moved to Strasbourg by decree in 1991 and permanently established there in 2005 (although the headquarters had been transferred from the start, the students had to spend half of their annual curricula in either city until that date). In the course of its refocusing on European governance, it merged with the Centre d'études européennes de Strasbourg (Center for