Paris, 04/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - Adopting at its plenary session in Paris the report by Mark Eyskens on the role of national parliaments in the European Union, the Assembly of the Western Union desired that the European Convention discuss a proposal that would turn the existing system upside down, the "democratic principle of the separation of powers in the European Union" whereby "the Council would cease to have responsibility for matters that are the preserve of the legislative power". Under the system proposed by the former Belgian prime minister in his contribution to the Convention, and endorsed by the Assembly, "legislative tasks should be performed by two parliamentary bodies working separately and in a complementary manner: the European Parliament would become the main legislative body and would constitute the "first chamber"; and a body of elected national representatives would constitute an interparliamentary chamber which could eventually be transformed into a "second chamber" as part of the drive to complete European integration". According to the WEU Assembly, "this interparliamentary chamber should in principle have responsibility for scrutinising and overseeing policies that continue to be mainly intergovernmental… such as the CFSP, ESDP and police and judicial co-operation in criminal matters". In time, the interparliamentary chamber would replace the Council "for matters that are the preserve of the legislative power. The Assembly followed its rapporteur in wanting the mutual solidarity article (Article V) of the modified Brussels Treaty (setting up the WEU Assembly) to be incorporates in to the Treaty on European Union.
Adopting a report by John Wilkinson, the Assembly called for the fight against terrorism to be formally included in the European Security and Defence Policy and be specified as one of the Petersberg missions for which the EU is now responsible (the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU and the WEU is particularly keen on this).
Speaking on behalf of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the WEU, the Spanish defence minister Federico Trillo Figueroa called on WEU MPs "to put pressure on their governments to remove the final obstacles at national level to the NATO-EU agreement whereby Alliance assets will automatically be made available for specifically EU-led operations" (meaning pressure on the Greek government, Ed). The minister "paid a resounding tribute to the "parliamentary dimension" of European security and defence" and "declared himself in favour of all EU members sharing the costs of European missions according to the Community cost-levelling criteria" rather than "on the basis of contributions agreed nationally". Portugal will be taking over the Presidency of the WEU Council for six months on 1 July 2002 (since Denmark, which will be chairing the Council of the EU has opted out on security and defence issues) and the Portuguese foreign minister Antonio Martins da Cruz said he had no doubt that the European Convention would scrutinise the issue of parliamentary control over the security and defence policy, adding that in the medium-term, the EU would have to have a genuine security policy, but defence should have to wait. He hoped that the borders of the enlarged EU would coincide with an enlarged NATO at the end of the enlargement process, thereby implicitly calling for Turkey to join the European Union.
During his speech to the plenary, WEU Assembly President, Klaus Bühler, slammed the attitude of the WEU Council of Ministers for "pushing the Assembly to the sidelines of the European defence debate. In practice, the council has virtually disappeared as the Assembly's partner in dialogue", he said, aware that the Assembly "finds itself in a very difficult position during this phase of transition with the transfer of WEU responsibilities to the EU". Bühler "warned against making the same mistakes when discussions begin on the transfer of responsibilities for armaments co-operation to the EU and noted that there is a continuing role for the Western European Armaments Group (WEAG), which comprises 19 European countries".