Brussels, 19/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - EP President Pat Cox has convened an extraordinary session of the European Parliament devoted to Iraq, on Thursday morning from 9h00 to 11h00. This comes as a response to the request made by several political groups, especially the European United Left/Nordic Greens Left and the Greens/European Free Alliance (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.6). The plenary will not adopt any resolution to close the debate to which European Council President Costas Simitis and the President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, were invited.
In a letter to the European Council President, Costas Simitis, the co-presidents of the Greens/EFA Group, Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Monica Frassoni, affirm that the "governments of the EU which expressed their support for this war are acting in total violation of Article 19 of the EU Treaty and against the Council declaration of 17 February" (see EUROPE of 19 February, p.3). We recall that Article 19 affirms that Member States must coordinate their action within international organisations and there defend "common positions".
Live video conference between MEPs and US Congress
On 19 March, "on the eve of war", as a press release from the European United Left/Nordic Greens Left states, a live video conference on the Iraq crisis took place between the members of the US Congress and MEPs who, after having been to Iraq, went to the United States headed by Francis Wurtz, President of the GUE/NGL Group, and Belgian Green member Paul Lannoye (see EUROPE of 11 March, p.5). Ten MEPs and ten US Congressmen took part in the debate, including Marcy Kaptur, Dennis Kucinich, Barbara Lee, Jim McDermott, Bob Filner and Peter De Fazio.