Brussels, 10/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - The parliamentary delegation for cooperation with the Maghreb has sent a letter to EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton and to the Commission, calling for Parliament to be involved, as an observer, in the talks underway with Algeria on trade and more generally on deepening economic cooperation.
This call for transparency is not specific to Algeria but, in this case, it passes on a pressing request officially made by MEPs during a hearing early June when views and information exchanged with the Commission, in the presence of an Algerian civil society representative, had resulted in a critical vision of the situation prevailing in Algeria (see EUROPE 10862).
The call for transparency has been brought up again further to the visit to Algiers at the end of last week by the Commission president, José Manuel Barroso, with a view to signing a “strategic” agreement on energy (see EUROPE 10883). “We were not consulted or even simply informed and we know nothing of the agreement”, one MEP confided to us, preferring not to make a public statement before the meeting convened on Thursday 11 July by the Maghreb delegation and the sub-committee on human rights at the European Parliament. This meeting, to clarify matters, will be held behind closed doors, our sources say. The Commission is called upon to fill in the gaps of information available to MEPs. (FB/transl.jl)