Paris, 07/03/2000 (Agence Europe) - The Assembly of the Western European Union chaired by Klaus Buehler has decided to convene, before the Lisbon Summit (that will hear an interim report on the development of Esdp, the European Security and Defence Policy), a special session on "European Security and Defence: the parliamentary dimension". This one-day session will be held in Lisbon on 21 March, on the invitation of Mr. Almeida Santos, Speaker of the Portuguese Parliament; in principle, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres should address the members of the Assembly in the morning.
Work will begin with speeches by the Speaker of the Portuguese Parliament, the Chairman of the WEU Assembly and the leader of the Portuguese delegation to the Assembly. Then, following the expected speech by the Portuguese Prime Minister, work will turn to the report by Wolfgang Behrendt on the parliamentary dimension of European Security and Defence Policy. In recent talks with journalists in Brussels, Mr. Buehler said (see EUROPE of 21/22 February, p.5) that the Assembly had regarded it necessary to raise the problem of the policy's democratic control, as the governments of Member States had still not done so.