European Parliament in Luxembourg granted a city the right to host a number bodies, including the Secretariat of the Assembly (now of the Parliament). Despite the 1965 agreement however, the Parliament's seat was a source of contention. Wishing to be closer to the activities in Brussels and Luxembourg, a few plenary sessions were held by the Parliament between 1967 and 1981 in Luxembourg instead of Strasbourg – against the wishes of France and in 1981 it returned to holding sessions entirely in Strasbourg. There are a handful of buildings in Luxembourg used by the Parliament. The city hosts the Secretariat of the European Parliament
Strasbourg-Ortenau Eurodistrict the crossborder flower festival on both banks of the Rhine held in Strasbourg and Kehl in the spring 2004. Mayor of Strasbourg Roland Ries, during and after his election campaign in 2007, proposed the strengthening of the district in order to maintain the presence of the European Parliament in the city (see Location of European Union institutions) and making it more autonomous and akin to a European capital territory. However the Ortenaukreis communities have been less enthusiastic about the Eurodistrict project. In late January 2010 the German State definitely greenlighted the entity and the inaugural session of the Eurodistrict's Council