EUROPE PARLIAMENT ALMOST COMPLETELY EMPTY

It's a 23-story building that houses 1,133 offices, 29 meeting rooms, a massive amphitheater with 750 seats, and a press center for 250 journalists. But the European Parliament is almost completely empty for all but four days every month.

Actually the European Parliament in Strasbourg is a huge complex comprised of three Euro-ugly buildings of French design:

The LOUISE WEISS (LOW) Building, in which all parliamentary activity takes place and in which the Members’ offices are situated;

The WINSTON CHURCHILL (WIC) Building, used for various purposes, houses two meeting rooms, a range of facilities (including a restaurant, travel office, bank and bar), and administrative offices; and

The SALVADOR DE MADARIAGA (SDM) Building, used primarily for administrative purposes.

The construction project was comically profligate with narrow door frames that had to be removed to install furniture, designer chairs so heavy they were as good as stationary, lack of signage to navigate its limitless corridors, faulty phones and air conditioning, and luxury office showers costing $12,000 each -- though MEPS were not permitted to overnight for security reasons. The dome of the parliament chamber lights up as the noise of debate rises. Why? Who knows. Obviously a must-have in smart French design.

Most of the time deputies work at the European Union headquarters in Brussels, and the constant to-and-fro has won the Parliament the nickname "traveling circus." ... The 732 MEPs — or members of the European Parliament — and their staff are based in another huge building in Brussels. The legislature's secretariat is in yet a third place — Luxembourg.

The nine buildings in three cities cost European taxpayers $258 million a year more than if the legislature were based in just one place, according to [a]parliamentary report approved last month.

The commute to Strasbourg, a city of 250,000, isn't made easier by a poor air link with major European capitals — there are only two flights from Brussels that enable legislators to make the Monday afternoon start of the plenary session on time, and few direct connections for deputies flying in from home constituencies.

The sole suitable train from Brussels takes more than five hours, leaving the Belgian city at 7 a.m. Driving can be a nightmare as the main highway between Brussels and Luxembourg, about halfway to Strasbourg, has been in disrepair for years. Major traffic jams along the 300 mile stretch are a near certainty.

But advocates of centralizing key EU institutions in Brussels face a big obstacle in France's veto power — and experts agree the proposal is not likely to pass anytime soon.

Consider the investment in infrastructure alone: France — a key architect of the European Union — took a central role in the planning of the glass-and-steel edifice that cost $591 million and was inaugurated with great pomp five years ago.

Guided tours of the building are available to groups during off-session. Book your group to experience the thrill of echoing footfalls in this big empty hive of government where France contrives her mighty European counterweight to America.