# The European Parliament Has Two Homes, and Only One Treaty Change Away From Having One > Committees meet in Brussels, plenary sessions are held in Strasbourg, and the secretariat is in Luxembourg. The arrangement is written into the treaties, which is why it survives. - Source: Belgium Crown - Canonical URL: https://belgiumcrown.com/article/european-parliament-two-seats - Author: Luc Vermeiren - Section: Europe - Published: 2026-07-29T09:15:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-07-29T09:15:00.000Z - Tags: European Parliament, Strasbourg, Treaties, Reform --- The European Parliament works across three cities. Its committees and political groups meet in Brussels, twelve plenary sessions a year are held in Strasbourg, and its secretariat is based in Luxembourg. Twelve times a year a substantial part of the institution moves several hundred kilometres, works for four days, and moves back. The arrangement is not an administrative preference that officials could revisit. The seats of the institutions are fixed in a protocol annexed to the treaties, which means changing them requires the agreement of every member state. France regards the Strasbourg seat as a matter of national and symbolic importance, having hosted the assembly since its earliest days and treating the city as the emblem of postwar reconciliation. One government's veto is sufficient, and one government has consistently indicated it would use it. Parliament itself has voted repeatedly for a single seat, and the arguments it makes are practical: the cost of the monthly move, the travel time, the environmental footprint, and the difficulty of running committees in one city while plenary sits in another. Those arguments have never been seriously contested on the facts. They simply do not reach the question, because the decision does not belong to Parliament. The Belgian interest here is usually left implicit. Brussels already hosts the committee work, the political groups and the day to day life of the institution, and any consolidation would in practice land there. Belgian officials have therefore been careful about how loudly they argue the case, since a host state pressing for another host state's loss is a poor diplomatic posture. What has changed is at the margins. Sessions have been cancelled or moved during emergencies, remote participation was normalised during the pandemic, and the practical weight of Brussels has grown regardless of what the protocol says. The seat question is stuck. The centre of gravity has been moving anyway. --- Originally published by Belgium Crown. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://belgiumcrown.com/article/european-parliament-two-seats.