Paris, 1 December – Mr Stef Goris (Belgium, Liberal Group), the newly-elected President of the WEU Assembly, on Wednesday called on the latter to “help develop a climate of trust and cooperation between the European Union and NATO”.

In the address he gave immediately following his election, Mr Goris stressed that the fact that the Assembly brought together “representatives of all the parliaments of NATO countries which are not members of the EU and of all the parliaments of EU member states which do not belong to NATO” put it in a good position “to promote what the European and transatlantic approaches have in common”. As the only body which had regular contacts with the PSC and the North Atlantic Council, “it can help create a climate of trust and cooperation between the EU and NATO (…) acting on the basis of the only European treaty which includes this important aspect of transatlantic cooperation”.

Mr Goris went on to say that recent events in Eastern Europe, and more particularly in Ukraine, meant that the Assembly “should pay special attention to the task of giving substance to a new neighbourhood, as envisaged in the European Security Strategy”. The need to develop “a clear view of what we are looking for from this neighbourhood” concerned not only Ukraine but also the unresolved problem of Moldova, developments in Belarus and of course relations with Russia. He was of the view that the WEU Assembly should “use all appropriate means to develop and reinforce dialogue with parliamentarians in those countries” by projecting itself, in its capacity as an interparliamentary Assembly, as “the most appropriate forum for discussions between the representatives of national parliaments”. He hoped that a similar approach could be made to the countries of the Mediterranean region.

The President of the Assembly finally expressed his wish that “the grave political consequences” occasioned by the “serious mistake of omission” on the part of the governments, when most of WEU’s operational activities were transferred to the European Union, could be rectified. “When they adopted the Treaty of Nice, they severed the institutional link which the Maastricht Treaty had established between WEU and the EU and which made WEU and its Assembly an integral part of the development of the European Union. But at the same time they did nothing to address the parliamentary dimension”. The “problem of the democratic deficit which arose as a result” had still not been resolved and the provisions contained in the Constitutional Treaty and its protocols did not provide an answer either. Mr Goris felt that “with a little goodwill, the consequences of that deficit could be easily overcome”. To begin with, the Council should make full use, mainly through its presidency, of the possibilities it had under Article IX of the modified Brussels Treaty “of providing parliamentary members with information and conducting a dialogue with them in this Assembly”.