The European Union Parliament "firmly condemns" the "illegal" building of the skyscraper "endangering two buildings of the Roman Catholic Archbishopric of Bucharest the Cathedral of Saint Joseph and the Metropolitan Palace, both of them registered in the list of the historical monuments of Romanian architecture". With 395 signatures, collected thanks to a remarkable mobilization of MEPs of the whole hemicycle (the first signers were Adrian Severin, Daciana Octavia Sârbu, Silvia Ciornei, Radu Podgorean and Corina Cre ñu), the European chamber takes a stand on an affair which has been dragging on for many months: less than ten metres from the old place of worship, a twenty-floor building (plus another four underground floors) is actually being finished in the centre of the capital of Romania, in a seismic area. The construction went on in spite of the opposite indications of the national and community regulations, relating to "the safeguarding of historical monuments", "on the subject of defence of the cultural and architectonical heritage". The declaration, approved in Strasbourg, invites the EU Commission and Council "to firmly condemn the attitude of the Romanian authorities, and to start the necessary legal proceedings to force such authorities to fulfil community obligations", fixed by Article 151 of EC Treaty, with the aim of halting construction works.
