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 Europe then followed through the founding of the Council of Europe, and its related bodies (such as the European Court of Human Rights), as well as the European Coal and Steel Community (later the European Union). Both the Council of Europe and the European Union increasingly work together, notably to enforce the Council of Europe's European Convention on Human Rights. One of the main impulses of making Strasbourg into the seat of numerous European institutions came from British Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin, one of whose closest advisors had a daughter who had studied in the city. While Bevin publicly acknowledged