How to Visit The European Parlament of Strasbourg

A tour of the European Union's institutional buildings is one of the best things to do in Strasbourg. The European Court of Human Rights, the Council of Europe and the European Parliament are all housed in several modern and innovative complexes that stand out among the historic buildings in the centre of Strasbourg.

In this post I will tell you about some useful aspects of planning your visit to the European Parliament on your next trip to the city of Strasbourg, so you can get to know one of the most important institutions in the Western world better.

It is a modern building that was inaugurated in 1999. It stands out both for its exteriors and its interior spaces and, definitely, the hemicycle in which the parliamentary debates are held is the great protagonist of the building. For this reason, it is often included in the best tours of Strasbourg.

Visits to the European Parliament are completely free and there are two ways to enjoy a tour of this place:

• Arriving during the opening hours from Monday to Saturday with no guarantee that you will be accompanied by a guide for your group of companions.
• Book a visit for a specific time and date, for which you must indicate the number of people who will accompany you.

In any case, an audio guide with multimedia content is always available in 24 different languages, which will also provide you with all the important details of the site.

In addition, there may be some special exhibitions, especially at times when the city of Strasbourg is very popular with tourists, such as during the summer or at Christmas time.

The specific opening hours of the European Parliament in the city of Strasbourg are quite flexible and show that this is an institution that tries to remain as open as possible to its visitors.

• Opening hours for groups without reservation and for individual visits: Monday to Friday from 1pm to 5pm and on Saturdays from 9.30am to 12 noon, then reopening at 1pm and closing at 5pm.
• Opening hours for groups with a reservation for a guided tour: Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. Groups must consist of 20 people and the guide must speak English, French or German. But the multimedia audio guide will still be available in the usual 24 languages.

All year round, except:

• Sundays.
• Public holidays.
• Office closure days decreed by the French government.
• 25 December.
• 1 January.
• 14 July.

In addition, due to the high number of tourists, it has been determined that in July, August and December only visits with multimedia audio guides are allowed. For this reason, visiting this place is one of the best things to do in Strasbourg in January, a very rainy month when an indoor plan is appreciated.

Yes, but in this case the concept of "guided tour" does not necessarily imply the presence of a person. There are 4 ways to visit this building:

• Accompanied by an employee of the visitors' office of the parliament itself: he guides a group of more than 20 participants made up of people who have made a reservation at least two working days in advance. This takes place from 9 a.m. to 11:45 p.m.
• With the accompaniment of an expert: accompanies those who arrived with the intention of individual visits after 13:00 and decided to wait for a large group of people to gather.
• With the Strasbourg city centre sightseeing tours: they also usually offer a guided tour of the Strasbourg Parliament. In this case, they operate according to the schedule of the individual tours and are accompanied by a private guide who also knows a lot of information about the building.
• With a multimedia guide: for individual visitors or groups of no more than 9 people.

There is no restriction on age or origin. This means that tourists can take part in the free guided tours regardless of whether they are citizens of the European Union or from other parts of the world.

The same applies to any other special event organised by this institution that involves an art exhibition or theatrical performance.

However, to gain access you will need to show a valid identification document, which can be either your ID card or your passport.

Here is the most interesting alternative way to get to the European Parliament in different situations.

The best way

The best way is to get off at the Parlament Européen station on the city's Tram system.

This is a tram that runs through Strasbourg and can take you to the centre of the Grand Ile de Strasbourg in less than 20 minutes. That's knowing that it's about four stations away.

The best option if you are staying in the suburbs of the city

In this case, I recommend getting off at bus stop 464D, which is located right in front of the Tram station. Depending on the area of your hotel then you would need to combine different routes, as some go north and some go south and, specifically, this parliament is located in the northwest corner of the tourist centre of the city.

The cheapest and best option if you're only in Strasbourg for a day

Walking is also an alternative, especially as the city is small and a 40-minute walk will take you from Place Kleber, which is at the city's most central tourist attraction. All without any inconvenience or major logistical challenges.

This will also allow you to get to know different neighbourhoods along the way such as Neustadt and Contades.

Believe it or not, visiting the European Parliament in Strasbourg with children can be a very recommendable decision. Although it is an institutional building where silence and restrained behaviour are required, it is a good place to learn about the history of Europe.

However, it is preferable for children to be of an age where crying and shouting will not be a problem that will cause discomfort for the other participants of the guided tour. It is also recommended that they are of an age where they are able to use the audio guides to understand the information they are hearing.

But there are other activities much more suitable for children's entertainment such as day trips from Strasbourg, which take in villages and countryside that offer children the opportunity to play and have fun more freely.

The European Parliament in Strasbourg is not really a place where you can pick and choose the places you visit. The tour is carefully planned so that people can see most of the building's facilities without interfering with the parliamentary activities of MEPs and other people working in administrative areas.

However, it is also true that there are some corners that are more important than others that you will see during your visit. These are as follows.

A walk to the plenary sessions

Perhaps the biggest attraction of a visit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg is being able to see some of the plenary sessions that are organised throughout the year. In other words, the debates that take place in the main hemicycle of the building where all the MEPs representing the Member States of the European Union legislate.

When you enter the visitors' area you will have to remain silent and you will continue to be accompanied by an audio guide to interpret what is happening there in your own language. All for a maximum of 30 minutes.

In this case, places are limited and are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, giving priority to those who book in advance in a group of more than 20 people.

The Simone Veil Parlamentarium

This site is a kind of permanent exhibition that tries to explain to visitors in the most didactic way possible the process behind the drafting of legislation that is carried out jointly by all the European states within this parliament.

The approach is quite intuitive and is suitable for children. The amount of time you can spend here is not as limited as in the case of the plenary hemicycle and, depending on the time of year, special events may be organised in this part of the building.

The average duration of both audio-guided and escorted tours is one and a half hours. This means that you can spend about two hours visiting the European Parliament in Strasbourg and then spend the rest of your day doing other sightseeing activities.

You have to bear in mind that there is a tedious security process for entry to the building and the tour does not start immediately after you have passed through the protocols at the gates. Sometimes you need to wait for the other people who are going to participate in the same tour to finish arriving.

I also recommend that you spend four or five hours in this part of the city, as the headquarters of the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights are equally important buildings that you can enjoy from the outside if you decide to walk through the streets of the European Quarter. Which is right next to a very famous city park that you should also visit no matter what time of year you travel.

• Understand that this is a pretty serious environment. It is an institutional building where things that are important for the economic, political and social stability of the European Union definitely happen. So it is still crucial that you behave as respectfully as you would in a church or a museum.
• Don't worry too much about having the experience of having a person as a guide. The fact is that the facilities are very well prepared so that the multimedia audio guide is an equally meaningful and even more complete experience.
• You should also bear in mind that the person accompanying you is only in French, German or English, and if you only speak Spanish then it is better to opt for the audio guide.