(BRUSSELS) - The EU parliament will return to its Strasbourg chamber in October after the repair of a collapsed ceiling which forced MEPs to hold extraordinary sessions in Brussels, it was decided Monday.

The two sessions held in the Belgian capital in September rekindled a long-running row over why the European parliament needs to shuttle between the two venues at taxpayers' expense.

The decision to hold the October 20-23 session back in Strasbourg, capital of France's Alsace region, was taken during a meeting between EU parliament president Hans-Gert Poettering and his 14 vice-presidents, after the parliament's administration declared the building safe, a parliament spokesman said.

Some 10 tonnes of rubble dropped into the deserted Strasbourg chamber on August 7. The ceiling was quickly repaired but inspections revealed other problems with the building, erected just nine years ago.

Gerard Onesta, vice-president of the parliament in charge of the issue and an architect by profession, has said that some faults identified during expert investigations did not present any danger to those using the building.

The bill for the repair and renovation works have risen to around 6.5 million euros (9.5 million dollars). Onesta said most of the costs would be recovered from insurance companies as the building, which began operating in 1999, remained under a 10-year guarantee.

Under EU treaties, the Strasbourg headquarters must host 12 parliamentary plenary sessions per year. For the rest of the time the 785 eurodeputies from the 27 member states, along with their 3,000 functionaries, have offices and a chamber in Brussels.

The agreement is worth an estimated 200 million euros a year to Strasbourg, along with the prestige of hosting the parliament.

In a symbolic protest during the last parliamentary session at the start of the month, a group of MEPS, led by members of the UK Independence Party, wore hard hats in the Brussels chamber to protest at the existence of "the wasteful Strasbourg Parliament building."

Philip Bushill-Matthews, the British Conservative leader in the parliament, described the two-seat body as "a symbol of all that must change in the EU."

Anti-Strasbourg campaigners have collected 1.2 million signatures in favour of a single-seat parliament. The idea was supported by 81 percent of euro deputies, according to one poll.

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