Ljubljana, 17/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - During a meeting of the European Parliament's EPP-ED Group's Bureau in Ljubljana, the vice-president of the Group, Wim van Velzen, announced that the presidents of the parliamentary groups of candidate countries linked to the European People's Party had approved the launching of a "parliamentary partnership" aimed at integrating the members of the parliaments of future Member States in the European parliamentary system, before accession. According to Mr van Velzen, "the time has come to act in order to help the parliamentarians of candidate countries" rather than wait for "observers to be appointed as the other main political groups of the European Parliaments do". Thanks to this partnership, the members of the EPP-ED Group, mainly those who are members of the joint parliamentary committees with the candidate countries, will sponsor parliamentarians of these countries during their visits to the plenary sessions of the European Parliament from this month on and until April 2003, when the observers of the future Member States will be officially appointed to the EP (Ed.: a solution already used at the time of Germany's unification). In addition, the Partnership will, as a press release states, allow the plenary debate to prepare the enlargement debate scheduled for 19 November in Strasbourg.