Europe votes to end parliament's 'Travelling Circus' Edward McMillan-Scott, a vice president of the parliament and Liberal Democrat MEP, challenged governments to show that they were serious about finding savings in the EU budget in line with national spending cuts. "MEPs have repeatedly voted in favour of a single seat," he said. Now member states must show they are serious about savings and efficiencies and allow the parliament to reform its antiquated working practices and arrangements," he said. MEPs have also demanded that the parliament's administration draws up an official estimate for the annual cost of running two seats for the parliament, as its offices in Luxembourg. Every month, the parliament's 736 MEPs and some three thousand staff and officials relocate from Brussels to Strasbourg, a trek that is required by the EU's Treaty as a symbol of post-War reconciliation in Europe. The 440 mile roundtrip costs the British taxpayer £28 million annually and generates almost 20,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions, a situation that angers MEPs in a parliament that likes to boast it is the "most environmentally aware assembly in the world." The parliament's buildings in Strasbourg were purchased at a cost of £467 million five years ago but remain unoccupied for nine months a year. Richard Ashworth, the leader of the Conservative MEPs, hailed the vote as "a very significant step forward." "Any possible justification for Strasbourg sessions is long gone and the public will no longer stand for such scandalous waste," he said.