Lisbon, 21/03/2000 (Agence Europe) - On the occasion of a special session in Lisbon on 21 March, the Assembly of the Western European Union adopted proposals aimed at ensuring that the development of a European Security and Defence Policy within the EU will not move forward without parliamentary control. We shall return to the outcome of the vote on the report by German Social-Democrat Wolfgang Behrendt on "European Security and Defence: the parliamentary dimension", which essentially proposes that the WEU Council propose to the EU endorsing the creation of a "European Security and Defence Assembly" composed of parliamentarians from the fifteen Member States of the EU, the six European non-EU NATO countries and the seven countries candidate for European Union membership (which have Associate Member and Associate Partner status within WEU). In this assembly, the delegations of the fifteen EU Member States (thus also the four neutral members and Denmark, that have observer status within WEU) would have the same rights and responsibilities, whereas those of the associate members and partners would have rights of participation at least equivalent to those they have acquired within the WEU Assembly. This Assembly, which would receive an annual report on EU activities in relation to security and defence, should set up appropriate cooperation with the European Parliament. In addition, Mr. Behrendt stresses the need to ensure that this Assembly is based on an "official legal foundation", in the form of a Protocol to be annexed to the revised EU Treaty and that, while waiting for the Protocol to take effect (when the current review of the Union's Treaty is ratified), it be recognised as "Interim European Security and Defence Assembly".
In his report, Mr. Behrendt places emphasis on the need to "prevent the apparition of further democratic deficit" following the development of the Esdp; indeed, recalling that Article IX of the Modified Brussels Treaty "places the (WEU) Council under the obligation to present an annual report to the WEU Assembly", he notes that, when a large part of WEU Council activities have been transferred to the European Union, one could fear a vacuum of parliamentary participation in European security and defence policy, if no genuinely binding rule is established. Mr. Behrendt, for whom, it is difficult to conceive that one could transfer all Petersberg Tasks from WEU to the EU without making the necessary amendments to the Treaty on the European Union, notes that both the WEU Assembly and the European Parliament regret that, in the framework of the Intergovernmental Conference, governments are neglecting the issue of democratic control in general, and its application to European security and defence in particular. The rapporteur also emphasies that the provisions relating to the control of Esdp must be "legally binding", and that parliamentary consultations not resting on a treaty, like those within the NATO Assembly, would not suffice.
"What exactly do we need?" Wonders Mr. Behrendt. Replying: A European Assembly anchored in the Treaty on the EU, composed of representatives of national parliaments of EU Member states and open to participation of parliamentarians of European countries members of NATO but not part of the EU, and countries applicant for EU membership. Indeed, the intergovernmental nature of Esdp means its democratic control by a parliamentary body representing all the national parliaments concerned, he says, stressing that the European Parliament cannot incarnate the political will of member states, and that nor can it represent the interest of candidate countries as long as the latter are not part of the EU (nor, obviously, those members of NATO not members of the EU). The rapporteur, moreover, considers that one should act "flexibly", and, while considering that, once the exercise of its military competencies has been transferred to the EU, the new WEU Assembly will have to find its legal foundation in the future Treaty on the European Union, he says that if it is not possible to amend the Treaty, one could always render the new Assembly legitimate through a Protocol annexed to the Treaty, or even envisage a declaration by the EU Council recognising the European Security and Defence Assembly as parliamentary body to which the EU's decision-making bodies concerned will have to answer (but this would only confer on it a "political" legitimacy). According to the rapporteur, the question of the rights of participation of the different delegations in the future Assembly will have to be carefully examined, possibly by a "special organisation committee", similar to the one created in 1954 to draw up the Charter and Regulation of the WEU Assembly. Finally, Mr. Behrendt states that the Assembly welcomes the openness of spirit demonstrated by many governments that have agreed to examine constructively any proposal that could be submitted to them.