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Assembly proposes bicameral system for Europe to European Convention
Paris, 4 June: The WEU Assembly on Tuesday advocated setting up an interparliamentary European �second chamber� to scrutinise and oversee policies that remain essentially intergovernmental, and shared or complementary areas of responsibility such as the CFSP, the ESDP and police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters.
In its proposal to the Convention on the Future of the European Union, based on a report submitted on behalf of the Political Committee by Mr Mark Eyskens (Belgium, Fed), the WEU Assembly wants legislative powers and the functions of general supervision of EU policy to be assigned to parliamentary bodies forming a bicameral system. The Assembly feels that the EU Council �should cease to have responsibility for matters that are the preserve of the legislative power� and should �concentrate on decision-making, and the Commission on its executive role�.
The Assembly envisages �two parliamentary bodies working separately and in a complementary manner�. The European Parliament, as the main legislative body, would constitute the �first chamber�, with responsibility for scrutiny and oversight of �communitised� policy areas. The �second chamber� would be complementary to the European Parliament and deal with the mainly intergovernmental policy areas of the CFSP and ESDP. Made up of elected national representatives, this second chamber should, the report stated, ultimately and in the context of institutional change, take over responsibility for WEU Assembly tasks once common defence became incorporated into the EU Treaty and arrangements were made for associating WEU member states that had not joined the EU. The new bicameral system should also incorporate the functions of COSAC.
Several members of the Convention present at the debate stressed that this was not a model to be applied to the letter, but a useful point of departure for the discussion that needed to take place on the parliamentary dimension of European security. In his report, Mr Eyskens had observed that a parliamentary deficit, not to say vacuum had now been identified as far as ESDP was concerned and that it was �up to the Convention to agree on a solution that will give the European Union the democratic legitimacy it is lacking�, particularly in areas of this degree of sensitivity.
The report and recommendations can be downloaded from
the WEU website (address below)
Background: the Assembly of WEU was founded in 1954 by the modified Brussels Treaty. Composed of 364 national parliamentarians from 28 countries including all EU member states, the Assembly scrutinises European intergovernmental activities in all areas of security and defence. Following the transfer of WEU�s operational activities to the EU, the Assembly also acts as the interim European Security and Defence Assembly.
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