Brussels, 07/11/2002 (Agence Europe) - At the meeting of the European Parliament's Committee on Constitutional Affairs, its chair, Giorgio Napolitano (Democratici di Sinistra), briefed members on the meeting of COSAC in Copenhagen (see EUROPE of 12 October, p.4). Napolitano stressed that the transformation of COSAC into a forum of national parliaments did not receive a consensus and that the review of the way this body worked, which brings together representatives of the EP (in this case vice-presidents Podesta and Martin) and national parliaments, was returned to a working group.
Returning to the results of the European Convention's working group on national parliaments, chaired by Gisela Stuart who presented her report at the COSAC meeting, Mr. Napolitano regretted that this group had not taken sufficient account of the resolution tabled by the EP on the same subject (of which he himself was the author). British Liberal-Democrat Andrew Duff, for his part, considered that the conclusions of the working group were "adequately modest" and did not enter into conflict with the EP's stances whose prerogatives had been preserved. Inido Mendez de Vigo regretted that the Danish Presidency had prepared a project aimed at altering the nature of COSAC (notably by weakening the EP's position within that informal body) and noted that COSAC did not have great support within the European Convention. "It is always the same minority that tries to change COSAC into a Congress…That makes no sense!" exclaimed German Social-Democrat Jo Leinen, stressing that the Bundestag was strongly against that.