Brussels, 01/02/2006 (Agence Europe) - To get MPs more involved in the EU and interesting debates, a move away from the logic of everything being centred on Brussels is needed. This is basically the gist of what Jürgen Trittin, former German environment minister for the Green party, and president of the Greens at the Bundestag (and policy coordinator for human rights, development policy, defence and Europe) declared to journalists on Wednesday in Brussels. During a visit of Bundestag deputies to the European Parliament, Mr Trittin explained that the Bundestag sought to strengthen its ties with the EP and intended to set up a liaison office at the European Parliament premises in Brussels where a representative of each of the Bundestag political groups will be based.
Rainder Steenblock, Greens spokesperson at the Bundestag said that the debate on the European Constitution would determine whether there was a need for greater cooperation from the German parliament and Brussels. He declared that “We want to enhance this cooperation…we need to initiate political debates at the right time rather than complain afterwards”. Steenblock said that the Bundestag received information about European Commission strategies too late and its parliamentary committees focused on “old documents that are for the large part out of date” and that this deficit needed to be resolved. Trittin underlined the importance of intervening in the legislative process in time and declared that “When I was environment minister, I provided the Bundestag environment committee with the agenda and priorities, before every Council, and told it how I intended to tackle them”. He explained that things needed to be improved from an institutional point of view, which would help ensure that national MPs were not just made aware of the implications of European legislation at the moment of transposition into internal law.
Rebecca Harms Greens/EFA MEP described the Bundestag project as more than welcome. She added that “We want national parliaments to get more involved in the work of the European Parliament in an effort to rectify the lack of transparency. We are delighted with the Bundestag initiative”. The Bundestag liaison office in Brussels is expected to be set up this year.