Palace of Europe

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The Palace of Europe (French: Palais de l'Europe), is the seat of the Council of Europe, located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France.

The building, designed by architect Henry Bernard, was inaugurated in 1977. It is square in shape, 106 metres on each side, with a height of 38 metres (nine stories). Its total working area is 64,000 square metres. It has 17 meeting rooms and a thousand offices for staff of the Council of Europe secretariat. The exterior of the building is red, silver, and brown. The Palace of Europe is located in the "European District" of Strasbourg, about two kilometres northwest of the Grande Île.

The Committee of Ministers meets in a circular room projecting from a corner of the eastern wing of the building.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe uses the large debating chamber in the centre of the building, called the 'Hemicycle'.

The Congress of the Council of Europe holds all of its plenary sessions (and also most of its mini-sessions and committee meetings) in the Palace of Europe. The permanent Secretariat of the Congress is based in Building B, attached to the main building.

Until 1999, the building also hosted plenary sessions of the European Parliament (an organ of the European Union, not officially associated with the Council of Europe). (The European Parliament now has its own building, Immeuble Louise Weiss, across the Ill River.)

From the outside, the Palace of Europe resembles a fortress, since the rows of windows are arranged like arrow slits. The Parliament chamber is covered by a giant dome and resembles an enormous shell.

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This article was originally translated from the German-language Wikipedia [1], and supplemented with information from the Council of Europe's own web page about its operations in Strasburg [2] (accessed June 17, 2006).