Europaudvalget 2009-10
EUU Alm.del Bilag 280
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MINUTES OF THE COSAC PRESIDENTIAL TROIKA MEETING

Madrid, 4 February 2010

PRESENT AT THE MEETING:

IN THE CHAIR: Mr Miguel ARIAS CAÑETE (CortesGenerales,Spain)Ms Anna KINBERG BATRA (Riksdag, Sweden); Ms Christina AXELSSON (Riksdag,Sweden); Ms Vanessa MATZ (Sénat, Belgium); Mr Herman DE CROO (ChambredesReprésentants,Belgium); Mr Miguel-Ángel MARTÍNEZ-MARTÍNEZ (European Parliament);Ms Silvana KOCH-MEHRIN (European Parliament).

AGENDA:

1. Adoption of the agenda for the Presidential Troika Meeting

2. Adoption of the draft agenda for the Chairperson’s Meeting

3. Debate and adoption of the draft agenda for the XLIII COSAC Meeting

- invitation of special guests

4. Adoption of the Outline of the Thirteenth Bi-annual Report

5. Update on the subsidiarity check on the Proposal for a Regulation of the European

Parliament and of the Council on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition and

enforcement of decisions and authentic instruments in matters of succession and the

creation of a European Certificate of Succession

6. Proposal for academic research co-operation with COSAC

7. Letters received by the Presidency

8. Any other business

PROCEEDINGS:

1. Adoption of the agenda for the Presidential Troika Meeting

The meeting was chaired by Mr Miguel ARIAS CAÑETE, Chairman of the Joint Committeefor the European Union of the SpanishCortes Generales,who welcomed the Members of thePresidential Troika and presented the draft agenda of the COSAC Presidential Troika meeting.The agenda was unanimously adopted as set out above.

2. Adoption of the draft agenda for the Chairperson’s Meeting

3. Debate and adoption of the draft agenda for the XLIII COSAC Meeting

4. Adoption of the Outline of the Thirteenth Bi-annual Report

Mr Miguel ARIAS CAÑETE outlined the draft agenda of the COSAC Chairpersons' Meetingas prepared by the Spanish Presidency. The Chairman informed the Members of thePresidential Troika that Mr Ludek SEFZIG, Chairman of the EU Affairs Committee of theCzechSenát,and Mr Harm Evert WAALKENS, Chairman of the Standing Committee onEuropean Affairs of the DutchTweede Kamer,had asked the Presidency to include an
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additional point on the agenda of the Chairpersons' Meeting on the future role of COSAC. TheChairman explained that the Presidency would prefer having a structured debate on the futurerole of COSAC and on the new model for relations between national Parliaments and theEuropean Parliament after the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon during the XLIIICOSAC Meeting on 30 May - 1 June 2010. The debate would be based on the Thirteenth Bi-annual Report. The Report would analyse the opinions of national Parliaments and theEuropean Parliament and would be a starting point for the thorough debate on the future ofCOSAC and on the relations between national Parliaments and the European Parliament. Aquestionnaire prepared by the Presidency and the COSAC Secretariat would be sent to nationalParliaments and the European Parliament in preparation for the Thirteenth Bi-annual Report.Therefore, Mr Miguel ARIAS CAÑETE proposed to present to the Chairpersons' Meeting thefollowing day the draft agendas of the COSAC Chairpersons' Meeting and the XLIII COSACMeeting as well as the Outline for the Thirteenth Bi-annual Report as a package.Ms Anna KINBERG BATRA supported the Presidency’s proposal to postpone the debate untilMay and stated that the debate on the future role of COSAC should be seen in a broadercontext. This issue would also be discussed at the EU Speakers’ Conference on 14-15 May2010 in Stockholm. It was important that the COSAC debate was well structured.Ms Silvana KOCH-MEHRIN agreed that it was important to have a well-structured debatebased on information collected from national Parliaments and the European Parliament.Mr Miguel ARIAS CAÑETE outlined the draft agenda of the XLIII COSAC Meeting.Mr Miguel- Ángel MARTÍNEZ-MARTÍNEZ underlined that this was a starting point of a newchapter in the relations between the European Parliament and national Parliaments. He saidthat mechanisms to implement the Treaty of Lisbon had to be developed and that COSAC wasone of the good instruments serving that purpose. COSAC had proved its relevance and nowhad to adapt to new requirements. The European Parliament was ready to reflect on thisevolution.As to the draft agenda of the XLIII COSAC Meeting, Mr Miguel-Ángel MARTÍNEZ-MARTÍNEZ suggested inviting two more speakers for the agenda point "The new model forrelations between national Parliaments and the European Parliament after the entry into forceof the Treaty of Lisbon" in order to better reflect overall political balance.Mr Herman DE CROO suggested that the two additional speakers be representatives ofnational Parliaments.Mr Miguel ARIAS CAÑETE explained that the two proposed speakers, Mr Elmar BROK andMr José María GIL-ROBLES Y GIL-DELGADO, had not been selected on the basis of theirpolitical affiliation. The Chairman agreed to enlarge the panel with two members of nationalParliaments belonging to the liberal and the socialist political families.Ms Anna KINBERG BATRA proposed to invite to the XLIII COSAC Meeting the Speaker ofthe SwedishRiksdag,Mr Per WESTERBERG, who is also the Chairman of the EU Speakers'Conference to present the results of the Stockholm meeting. The aim was to have morecoordination between the consultation opened by the EU Speakers' Conference and the debatesin COSAC. This was agreed.
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Ms Anna KINBERG BATRA also brought to the attention of the presidential Troika that,based on the experience of the XLII COSAC Meeting in Stockholm, there might be a need toallocate more time to the political family meetings. It was agreed that the political familymeetings on 31 May 2010 would start at 8.00 a.m. rather than at 8.30 a.m.The Presidential Troika agreed to suggest to the Chairpersons' Meeting to adopt the draftagenda of the COSAC Chairpersons' Meeting, as presented by the Presidency, the amendeddraft agenda of the XLIII COSAC Meeting, and the Outline for the Thirteenth Bi-annualReport as a package.Mr Miguel ARIAS CAÑETE informed the Presidential Troika that the Presidency hadreceived two requests for invitations to the XLIII COSAC Meeting as special guests: one fromMr Árni Þór SIGURÐSSON, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the IcelandicAlþingi,and the other from Mr Vladimir DANCHECV, Head of the Regional Secretariat forParliamentary Cooperation in South East Europe in Sofia, on behalf of the Conference of theEuropean Integration Parliamentary Committees of the States participating in the Stabilisationand Association Process in South East Europe (COSAP). The Chairman recalled thattraditionally special guests could be invited to the COSAC meetings when there was a relatedpoint on the agenda of the meeting. As there was no point on the agenda of the XLIII COSACMeeting concerning the Balkan region, the Chairman suggested declining the COSAP request.On the other hand, the Chairman suggested extending an invitation to the IcelandicAlþingi,because Iceland had applied for EU membership, and it was highly probable that by the nextCOSAC meeting it would have been granted candidate country status.It was agreed to suggest to the COSAC Chairpersons' Meeting the following day to decline aninvitation to the COSAP and to extend an invitation to the IcelandicAlþingito the XLIIICOSAC Meeting.

5. Update on the subsidiarity check on the Proposal for a Regulation of the European

Parliament and of the Council on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition and

enforcement of decisions and authentic instruments in matters of succession and the

creation of a European Certificate of Succession

Mr Miguel ARIAS CAÑETE asked Ms Loreta RAULINAITYTE, the permanent member ofthe COSAC Secretariat, to introduce the Note on the COSAC-coordinated subsidiarity checkon the Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on jurisdiction,applicable law, recognition and enforcement of decisions and authentic instruments in mattersof succession and the creation of a European Certificate of Succession. Ms LoretaRAULINAITYTE explained the unique situation in which this subsidiarity check had takenplace. It had started on 20 October 2009, before the Treaty of Lisbon entered into force and theeight week period ended on 17 December 2009, with the Lisbon Treaty in force. A recordnumber of national Parliamentary Chambers participated in this check, i.e. 35 Chambers out of40 from 25 Member States. A full report on the subsidiarity check would be presented to theXLIII COSAC Meeting.

6. Proposal for academic research co-operation with COSAC

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Mr Miguel ARIAS CAÑETE presented a proposal received by the Presidency from a group ofacademics working on the role of national Parliaments in the European Union for academicresearch cooperation with COSAC on the "Europeanisation of parliamentary behaviour".After a debate, the Presidential Troika agreed to suggest to the Chairpersons' Meeting to referthe academics to the European University Institute in Florence in order to promote cooperationbetween various academic circles dealing with similar subjects. Mr Miguel ARIAS CAÑETEsuggested writing a letter on the proposal to the new President of the European UniversityInstitute, Mr Josep BORRELL FONTELLES.

7. Letters received by the Presidency

Mr Miguel ARIAS CAÑETE informed the Presidential Troika about a letter received from MrMichael CONNARTY, the Chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee of the UKHouse ofCommons,concerning the interpretation of the extent of the new powers granted to the nationalParliaments by the Treaty of Lisbon. In his letter Mr CONNARTY expressed concern that thenew powers could be subjected to a restrictive interpretation.After a debate, it was decided to suggest to the Chairpersons' Meeting to include this questioninto the questionnaire for the Thirteenth Bi-annual Report and to ask the Presidency to seek aopinion on this matter from the European Commission, the European Parliament and the EUCouncil’s legal services.Mr Miguel ARIAS CAÑETE also presented a letter received by the Presidency from theChairpersons of the Public Expenditure Committee, the Committee on Finance and theCommittee on European Affairs of the DutchTweede Kameron accountability of EUbudgetary funds. The authors of the letter informed the Presidency about an InterparliamentaryConference on improving national accountability of EU funds held on 28-29 January 2010 inThe Hague and asked this issue to be put on the agenda of COSAC.During the debate attention was drawn to the fact that there would be no discussions on the EUbudget before this summer and, therefore, it was too early to discuss this matter during the nextCOSAC meeting. In addition, the main focus of the XLIII COSAC Meeting should be thefuture role of COSAC and the relations between national Parliaments and the EuropeanParliament. It was decided to suggest to the Chairpersons' Meeting not to include this issue onthe agenda of the XLIII COSAC Meeting.

8. Any Other Business

Mr Herman DE CROO informed the Presidential Troika that recently he had been made awareof the differences concerning the status of the representatives of the national Parliaments inBrussels. After a brief exchange of views, Mr Miguel ARIAS CAÑETE proposed to ask theCOSAC Secretariat to draft a non-paper on the status of the representatives of the nationalParliaments in Brussels. This was agreed.
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