text: Status The Commission employs 25,000 people and the Parliament employs about 6,000 people. Because of this concentration, Brussels is a preferred location for any move towards a single seat for Parliament. Despite it not formally being the "capital" of the EU, some commentators see the fact that Brussels enticed an increasing number of the Parliament's sessions to the city, in addition to the main seats of the other two main political institutions, as making Brussels the de facto capital of the EU. Brussels is frequently labelled as the "capital" of the EU, particularly in publications by local authorities, the Commission and press. Indeed, Brussels interprets the 1992 agreement on seats as declaring Brussels as the capital.
  There are two further cities hosting major institutions, Luxembourg (judicial and second seats) and Strasbourg (Parliament's main seat). Authorities in Strasbourg and organisations based there also refer to Strasbourg as the "capital" of Europe and Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg are also referred to as the joint capitals of Europe. In 2010, then-Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, while speaking to the European Parliament, said: "As you probably know, some American politicians and American journalists refer to Washington, D.C. as the 'capital of the free world.' But it seems to me that in this great city, which boasts 1,000 years of history and which serves as the capital of Belgium, the home of the European Union, and the headquarters for NATO, this city has its own legitimate claim to that title."