Versailles, 18/10/2000 (Agence Europe) - At its meeting in Versailles (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.3), the Conference of Bodies Specialised in Community Affairs (COSAC) adopted a contribution addressed to European institutions. This is the first time that COSAC, which brings together Euro-MPs and national parliamentarians, has used the possibility provided for in the Protocol to the Amsterdam Treaty on the role of national parliaments, thereby proving its capacity of collective expression and of proposal on European issues.
COSAC calls on Member States to reach an agreement at the European Council of Nice on the institutional reform that, in the perspective of enlargement, already guarantees the efficiency, transparency and legitimacy of the institutions and that allows the new Member States to join from 1 January 2003. It calls on the Union's institutions to proclaim the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and considers that the procedure of drawing up the Charter through a Convention, bringing together representatives from the governments, the Commission, the EP and national parliaments, could prove useful in future. It also calls for the adoption of the European Social Agenda by the of the French Presidency, and the establishment of a European area of liberty, security and justice, with concrete measures to combat illegal immigration and common standards for crossing the Union's external borders. COSAC also urges the IGC to amend the first part of the Protocol on the role of national parliaments, providing for: - the electronic transmission to national parliaments of all consultation documents and legislative proposals as soon as they are adopted by the Commission; - the application of the six-week deadline (provided for at point 3) to proposals relating to Cfsp, and draft international agreements to which the Council is party; - a minimum 15-day period, or a week in case of emergency, to observe between a text's examination within Coreper and the Council decision.
In addition, in a declaration on Serbia, COSAC hopes that the "European Union puts in place new cooperation with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, so that it may find its place in Europe, and that the EU help it consolidate democracy and improve its living standard".