European institutions in Strasbourg European Studies, CEES) of the University of Strasbourg and subtitled itself "École européenne de gouvernance" (European Governance School). Another related academic institution is the Institut des hautes études européennes (IHEE), located in the Art Nouveau former Villa Knopf (built 1903–1905), close to the Parliament and the CoE. This school was founded in 1953 and was then called "Centre universitaire des hautes études européennes" (University Center for higher European Studies). The École Européenne de Strasbourg has been inaugurated by French education minister Xavier Darcos on 4 September 2008. It is the first school of its kind in France. Strasbourg also serves
Strasbourg and home to 13% of the Grand Est region's inhabitants. The transnational Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau had a population of 915,000 inhabitants in 2014. Strasbourg is one of the "de facto" capitals of the European Union (alongside Brussels and Luxembourg), as it is the seat of several European institutions, such as the Council of Europe (with its European Court of Human Rights, its European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines and its European Audiovisual Observatory) and the Eurocorps, as well as the European Parliament and the European Ombudsman of the European Union. The city is also the seat of the Central Commission