Brussels, 13/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - German Social Democrat MEP Jo Leinen, President of the European Parliament's Constitutional Committee, Angelika Beer, German Green MEP, Andreas Bummel, President of the Committee for a Democratic UN outlined to journalists on 13 September an imitative to make the United Nations more democratic and transparent. Sixty years on from the creation of the United Nations, it is high time to create a Parliamentary Assembly (alongside the existing General Assembly representing governments) to ensure greater democracy and transparency, explained the two MEPs. No changes in the Charter of the United Nations would be required to set up a Parliamentary Assembly, explained Andreas Bummel, since all that would be required was a General Assembly vote under Article 22 of the United Nations Charter (which has already been used to create a large number of UN bodes, added Leinen). Jo Leinen regretted that the European Union's policy with regard to the United Nations was still in the stage of infancy.
Both Jo Leinen and Angelika Beers attacked the United States' attempts to water down the contents of the document to be adopted on Friday at the Millennium Summit in New York (14-16 September). Jo Leinen asked whether there was the danger of the Summit collapsing and slammed Washington for wanting to emasculate the UN and deprive it of any role in international peace-keeping. This attack must not succeed, he stressed. Angelica Beer said the United States only wanted to use the UN when it suited them. She criticised the proposals unveiled by the United States new representative to the UN, John Bolton, for the Summit's final statement on terrorism, the duty to protect civilian populations and nuclear disarmament. Speaking about Jose Manuel Barroso's press conference ahead of the Summit (see Europe No. 9025), Beer regretted that the President of the European Commission had not mentioned the initiative to create a UN Parliamentary Assembly, but hoped he would support the venture.