Paris, 1 November 2001: The President of the Assembly of WEU – the interim European Security and Defence Assembly – Mr Klaus Bühler, MdB, will take part in a conference on “Estonia and the European Union” at the National Library of Estonia in Tallinn on 1 and 2 November 2001. A major focus of the conference is the role of parliaments in the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). 
 
The conference takes place only a few days before the meeting of representatives of the national parliaments of all 15 EU member states, the European Parliament and the Assembly of WEU on 6 and 7 November 2001 in Brussels to prepare proposals for the meeting of EU heads of state and government (Laeken European Council ) on the parliamentary dimension of ESDP. 
 
During his visit to Estonia meetings are scheduled for Mr Bühler with President Arnold Rüütel and the Speaker of the Estonian National Assembly Mr Toomas Savi, focusing on Estonia’s accession to the European Union, the possibilities of its participation in ESDP crisis-management activities and the parliamentary dimension. 
 
Estonia has been an associate partner of the Assembly of WEU since 1994. President Rüütel is expected to speak at the next session of the Assembly in Paris (3 – 6 December 2001). 
 
Mr Bühler will speak Thursday on 1 November 2001 at 11.00 on “parliamentary scrutiny of the European Security and Defence Policy”. 
 
After the speech he will take part in a panel discussion on ESDP. Other members of the panel are Prof Richard Cohen, George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, Dr Andreas Schockenhoff, MdB, Spokesperson of the CDU/CSU-Group in the German Bundestag and Gisela Stuart, MP, member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons. 
 
 
 
Download the Assembly’s report on the role of Parliaments in ESDP: document 1752