How to Visit The European Parliament of Strasbourg

A tour of the institutional buildings of the European Union 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 located in several modern and innovative complexes that stand out among the historic buildings in the center of Strasbourg.

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

Of the place you have to know that 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 parliamentary debates are held is the great protagonist of the building. For this reason, it is usually a site included in the best tours of Strasbourg.

Visits to the European Parliament are completely free and you have 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, there is always an audio guide with multimedia content available in 24 different languages with which you will also learn all the important details of this site.

In addition, there may be some special exhibitions, especially in times of high tourist influx for the city of Strasbourg such as summer or Christmas.

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

• Opening hours for groups attending without reservation and for individual visits: Monday to Friday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and on Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 12 noon, then reopening at 1 p.m. and closing at 5 p.m.
• Opening hours for groups with a reservation for a guided tour: Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. They must consist of 20 people and the guide will speak English, French or German. But the multimedia audio guide will still be available in the usual 24 languages.

All year round, except:

• Sundays.
• Holidays.
• Office closing days decreed by the French government.
• December 25th.
• January 1st.
• July 14.

In addition, due to the high influx 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 in which 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:

• With the accompaniment of a worker from the visitors' office of the parliament itself: guides a group of more than 20 participants composed of people who 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 1:00 p.m. and decided to wait for a large number of people to gather.
• With the Strasbourg downtown sightseeing tours: they also usually offer a guided tour of this parliament. In this case they operate under the schedules of the individual visits and are accompanied by a private guide who also knows a lot of information about the building.
• With a multimedia guide: for those individual visitors or groups of no more than 9 people who wish to do so.

There is no limitation regarding age or origin. This means that tourists can participate in the free guided tours regardless of whether they are citizens of the European Union or come from other parts of the world.

The same goes for any other special event organized by this institution that has to do with an art exhibition or a theatrical exhibition.

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

Below I explain you the most interesting alternative to reach the European Parliament according to different situations.

The most recommended way

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

It is a streetcar that crosses Strasbourg and can perfectly take you to the center of the Great Island of 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 at the northwest end of the tourist center of the city.

The cheapest and best option if you are only in Strasbourg for one day

Walking is also an alternative, especially due to the fact that the city is small and in a 40-minute walk you could get from Kleber Square, which is the most central point for tourism in the city. All without any inconvenience or major logistical challenges.

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

Believe it or not, visiting the European Parliament in Strasbourg with children can be quite a recommendable decision. Although it is an institutional building where you should keep quiet and maintain a very moderate behavior, it is a good place to learn about the history of Europe.

However, it is preferable that they are children in ages in which crying and screaming will not be a problem that generates 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 appropriate for children's entertainment such as day trips from Strasbourg, which go through 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 choose the places you will visit. The tour is meticulously planned so that people can see most of the building's facilities without interfering with the parliamentary activities of the deputies and other people working in administrative sectors.

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 the following.

A walk to the plenary sessions

Perhaps the biggest attraction of participating in a visit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg is being able to see some of the plenary sessions that are organized throughout the year. That is, the debates that take place in the main hemicycle of the building in which all the deputies representing the Member States of the European Union legislate.

When you enter the visitors area you must remain silent and you will continue to have the accompaniment of the audio guide to interpret in your language what is happening in that place. 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 what is the process behind the development of legislation that are made together by all 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 organized 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 with about two hours you can visit the European Parliament in Strasbourg and then spend the rest of your day in other tourist activities.

And you have to keep in mind that there is a tedious security process for the entrance to the building and the tour does not take place immediately after you have passed those protocols at the gates. Sometimes you need to wait for the other members of the same tour to finish arriving.

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

• Understand that this is a pretty serious environment. And that is because it is an institutional building where things definitely happen that are important for the economic, political and social stability of the European Union. 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 that includes a person as a guide. The truth 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 keep 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.