Brussels, 25/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - A delegation of the committee on European Union policies at the Italian House of Representatives took part on Wednesday, in Brussels, at a meeting of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs chaired by Giorgio Napolitano (himself a former president of the Camera dei Deputati). The delegation met European Commission Michel Barnier, responsible for institutional issues. Chaired by Luigi Berlinguer, the delegation was composed of Giovanni Saonara, Sandra Fei, Tonino Loddo and Guido Rossi. It held an exchange of views with the constitutional committee on the subject of the Treaty of Nice, and above all, on the prospects opened by the Nice Declaration on the future of Europe. In a press release, the Italian parliamentarians state that the new treaty must be examined in detail and severely criticised, but that it is necessary to avoid recrimination over what has already happened and to look ahead by influencing the new reform process. The aim of this first phase in the post-Nice process must be to introduce a new method for developing reforms, based on a "strengthened role of both European and national parliaments", say the deputies, who consider that the EP and the parliaments of Member States should: - take the initiative, "each at its own level", organise with the Swedish and Belgian Presidencies the "consultation and involvement of the public in the first phase of the broad debate foreseen in the Nice Declaration for 2001; - work so that the European Summit of Laeken "agrees on a new method for developing reforms". According to the Italian representatives, the EU parliaments could make a "common proposal along these lines".
The Italian MEPs suggest the following stages: first of all, the convening of a convention (inspired by that which drafted the Charter of Fundamental Rights, but "with changes suggested by experience") to define a project for reform with qualified majority decisions. So that the Convention may be effective, each parliament should establish "strong forms of liaison with its own representatives to the Convention"; - an Intergovernmental Conference that would work on the basis of the results of the Convention; - the assent of the European Parliament on the final decision by Member States (as already requested in a resolution approved on 10 February 2000 by the Committees on Foreign Affairs and EU policies at the Italian House of Representatives).