The 14th COSAC in Rome on 24-25 June 1996 warmly welcomed the conclusions of the European Council in Turin on 29 March 1996. On the opening day of the IGC, the Heads of State or Government had for the first time obliged the Council Presidency to “provide information to the national parliaments through COSAC”.
The 14th COSAC in Rome represented the first opportunity to implement this new initiative. Mr Lamberto Dini, Italian Minister of Foreign affairs, presented a summary of the progress made to date of the IGC and of the work of the Italian Presidency following the European Council in Florence.
Again the role of national parliaments in the EU was a key point on the COSAC agenda. The conference also debated reform of COSAC. The Westendorp Reflection group had issued its final report on 5 December 1995. The group had rejected the idea of a second chamber and concluded that “COSAC was a favourable formula for the improvement of relations between national parliaments and the European Parliament”, although it had also recommended that COSAC should not become a new institution.
Against this background, the conference discussed a proposal to strengthen the possibilities for national parliaments to act collectively by empowering COSAC to express itself on the principle of subsidiarity and on issues within the two inter-governmental areas of the Treaty (CFSP and JHA). A majority of delegations rejected the idea, although most delegations nonetheless accepted the need to improve the functioning of COSAC. The Finnish delegation suggested establishing a working group to work out recommendations on how to proceed with the issue. The COSAC Presidential Troika was mandated to prepare a report on a “reinforcement of declaration 13 and an improved functioning of COSAC, to be presented at the next meeting of COSAC in Dublin”.
-
Address by the Chairman of the Italian Senate and the Chairman of the Italian Chamber of deputies (in French)
-
Rules of procedure as modified by the XIV COSAC
-
Discussion of the XIV COSAC agenda (in French)
-
Adoption of the agenda (in French)
-
Presentation by the President of the European Council on the Italian presidency of the EU and on the work of the intergovernmental conference (in French)
-
Debate on the declarations of the President of the European Council (in French)
-
Relations between National Parliaments and EU institutions (in French)
-
Follow-up of the Conference on Euro-Mediterranean partnership in Barcelona and of the corresponding operational instruments, especially the MEDA programme (in French)
-
List of participants