A WHOPPING £120m could be saved by ditching one of the two European parliament buildings.

Walthamstow-based MEP Jean Lambert has spoken up in support of a campaign to halt the expense.

The London Green MEP said that moving 700 MEPs, their staff, officials and their papers from their base in Brussels to the European Parliament building in Strasbourg for just four days every month was impractical and wasteful.

She said that it was very likely she would sign an online petition at www.oneseat.eu asking for all the parliament's work to be kept in one place.

MEPs were used to travelling but support staff were based in Brussels most of the time, she said.

Speaking from Strasbourg, she said: "It is not practical. We are only here a few days every month.

"People with children have to worry about childcare. We have to decide what papers we need and you never have the key bit of paper once you are here."

She said that the cost to the environment of transporting members, staff and hundreds of trunks full of documents was huge.

"We need to have a single site for the parliament," she added.

Another London MEP, Syed Kamall, has already signed the petition, "Maintaining two huge parliament buildings is a totally unnecessary drain on London taxpayers' money," he said.

"I can think of a number of good causes in London which would make far better use of the vast sum of money."

The arrangement was enshrined in the EU constitution when the union was created, so that no one country held all the seats of power.

Its main institutions are spread around Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

The EU Commission where the civil service is located and the parliament building where MEPs hold all their committee meetings are both in the Belgian capital.

Mrs Lambert said that the Strasbourg parliament was a great building and that she thought there was merit in the idea that it should be turned into a European university. Only the governments of EU member states can change the situation and any attempt to do so would probably be vetoed by the French but both MEPs hope that national governments will take notice of the campaign.