Paris, 4 December 2007 – The WEU Assembly voted on Tuesday to simplify the different status categories of its members in order to enhance its “pivotal” role in scrutiny of the European security and defence policy (ESDP) following the adoption of the Lisbon Reform Treaty by the European Council.

Submitting a report on behalf of the Political Committee on what the Lisbon Treaty meant for European security and defence, the President of the Assembly, Mr Jean-Pierre Masseret (France, Socialist Group), pointed out that although “the institutional organisation does not change in any way, politically the European Parliament acquires a far greater capacity to act than before”. In President Masseret’s view, “the European Parliament will quite naturally take advantage of these new opportunities” which include the power to “make recommendations” and “hold a debate twice a year devoted specifically to the common foreign and security policy (CFSP) and ESDP”.

Given that this development “might have consequences for the relationship between the European Parliament and the Assembly”, Mr Masseret recommended that the Assembly should take on “a role of mediation, acting as an intermediary between the national parliaments and the European Parliament” where, he reminded members, national parliamentarians were not able to express their opinions as such. “It is up to us to show that this platform, this linchpin, this bridge that the Assembly represents, remains essential if the democratic deficit is to be reduced in the area of the CFSP and ESDP”.

The Assembly regretted in this regard that the Lisbon Treaty did “not include provisions for a mechanism for informing and consulting a standing body composed of representatives of the national parliaments”, while “the European Parliament is engaged in an ongoing battle to extend and define its own responsibilities, in particular in relation to the national parliaments”.

The proposed simplification of the Assembly’s status categories would reduce them from seven to three: “members” would include “all EU member states”, “associate members” would include European countries that were “members of NATO but not of the EU” and all the other European countries would be “partners”. President Masseret felt that this reform “could mean that our task of carrying forward the debate would carry a little more weight”.