Brussels, 27/03/2000 (Agence Europe) - On the occasion of its special session, in Lisbon on 21 March, the Assembly of the Western European Union (WEU) adopted an initiative on "European security and defence: the parliamentary dimension". As expected, the parliamentarians decided to transform the current WEU Assembly into an interim European Security and Defence Assembly of the fifteen EU member countries, enlarged to non-EU European NATO members and candidates for EU membership, says a press release. The Assembly has made this recommendation to the governments of the WEU member countries on the basis of a report presented by German parliamentarian Wolfgang Behrendt (see EUROPE of 22 March). The special session in Lisbon brought together some 300 parliamentarians from the 28 WEU member, observer, associate and partner countries; a Russian delegation also attended, as well as representatives of the European Parliament and national parliamentary committees.
In their recommendation, the press release explains, the WEU parliamentarians consider that the new Assembly will have to receive an annual report on EU activities, like the WEU Assembly previously received. The new Assembly should, moreover, be the favoured interlocutor of the new structures set up within the EU, notably the Political and Security Committee (COPS). The parliamentarians also recommend that delegations of non-EU European members of NATO and those of candidates for accession should have the right to appropriate participation within the new Assembly. The new Assembly should have an official legal foundation in the form of a protocol annexed to the revised Treaty on the European Union. Between now and then, the current Assembly should be recognised as interim European Security and Defence Assembly.