Brussels, 07/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - Meeting in Brussels on Monday 4 and Tuesday 5 April, the speakers of national parliaments agreed on the principle of setting up an interparliamentary conference for scrutiny of CSDP/CFSP, but without power to sanction. They completely disagreed, however, on how this should function, hardly agreeing on the size of the delegations (both national and from the EP) or on the secretariat of the conference (COSAC or EP). (See EUROPE 10350). The future presidency of the conference of speakers (to be held by Poland) was entrusted with monitoring the work.
In substance, the “one difference between the various parliamentary points of view was between those who wished to focus on the intergovernmental dimension of the CFSP and the CSDP and those who wished the Community dimension also to be included”, the Speakers noted in the Belgian presidency conclusions adopted on 5 April.
Consequently, after almost two days of discussion, the two sides kept to their positions. The European Parliament does not want to have fewer than 27 representatives within the conference, while the most radical national delegations (the United Kingdom, including the president-in-office of the Western European Union Parliamentary Assembly) do not wish to limit the number of EP representatives to the number of members of the delegation from the largest member states. Their stance was confirmed by the amendment from the vice-president of the Belgian Senate, Armand De Decker, at the Western European Union Parliamentary Assembly. It was voted at the end of March to the report for implementation of the Lisbon Treaty. De Decker proposed, however, that the EP delegation should be equivalent to one third of the national members of the future conference. At this stage, and since talks began, relations between the EP and national parliaments have been very tense. The participation of national parliamentarians at the extraordinary meeting of EP foreign affairs and security and defence committees on 24 May was cancelled (the meeting itself would have been held in the presence of the high representative and European commissioners). (A.By./transl.jl)