Brussels, 13/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - Co-president of the European Parliament's Greens Group, Heidi Hautala, welcomed the decision by the EP's legal committee, taken on Wednesday by 13 votes to 10, to recommend that Parliament file a complaint with the Court of Justice against the EC Council decision to "unilaterally change the rules on access to ducments" (to bring in "top secret" classification for ESDP documents: see EUROPE of 25 August, p.3).
The chairman of Committee on Foreign Affairs, Elmar Brok, told the constitutional committee on Tuesday that the EU Council now seems willing to envisage a system similar to that which is applied in Member States. One could be moving towards the constitution of a "very small committee" entrusted with this question and in which three to five members of Parliament would have a seat, said Mr Brok. In some cases, confidentiality is necessary, he remarked, however, as "we do not, for example, want President Milosevic to be immediately informed of certain intentions that we could have towards him … With the development of its role in this field, the European Commission, also, must take decisions similar to those taken end July by the Council", said Mr Brok, adding: "we shall never receive confidential documents from NATO if these documents hang about on our desks or in all computer files".