JOINT COMMITTEE ON EUROPEAN AFFAIRS debate -
Thursday, 18 Nov 2004

Business of Joint Committee.

Vice-Chairman

The minutes of the meetings on 7 October and 13 October 2004 have been circulated. Are they agreed? Agreed.

An e-mail correspondence has been received from Ms Máire Geoghegan-Quinn enclosing information regarding the launch of the annual report of the Court of Auditors. It is proposed to note this correspondence. Is that agreed? Agreed.

The plenary session of COSAC will take place in the Hague from 21 to 23 November. The agenda for the plenary has been circulated to members. It covers issues including the future language regime to be employed by COSAC, the implementation of subsidiarity-monitoring in national parliaments, a declaration to raise national awareness and the Lisbon process. These are all issues discussed at the committee. In any event, they must be fleshed out by the Presidency. I urge members, particularly from the Government side, who can make themselves available to contact the secretariat who will make the necessary travel arrangements.

Deputy Mulcahy

We must be frank about this. Some COSAC meetings have turned out to be a complete waste of time and talking shops. COSAC must turn into an interparliamentary body that can scrutinise EU legislation and decisions for national Parliaments, allowing them to talk to each other about these important decisions. Many COSAC meetings are taken up with procedural wranglings on venues, times, dates, working language and methods. Having spent several conferences simply listening to these wranglings, at this conference I believe we should take the lead in getting a relevant agenda for COSAC. Otherwise, it will become more irrelevant and will be disbanded, reducing interparliamentary co-operation. The new EU constitution provides for a yellow flag process whereby national parliaments, in advance of measures being adopted by the EU, can complain about, say, the lack of subsidiarity in a proposal. I encourage members to attend and participate positively to make it a more meaningful body.

Vice-Chairman

I agree. From my limited experience of COSAC, it needs an impetus. The agenda for The Hague session is similar to previous ones under other Presidencies.

Deputy Mulcahy

It is time to stir it a bit.

Vice-Chairman

I look forward to the Deputy's participation at The Hague session. Arrangements for attendance at the Berlin conference, A Soul for Europe, on 27 and 28 November must be finalised shortly. The secretariat will be delighted to hear from any Opposition member who wishes to attend.

The next meeting of the committee will be in private session with Ms Katherine Neenan to discuss the draft report on the joint committee on Turkish membership of the EU. As I will not be a member of the committee at the next meeting, I wish to say that it has been a pleasure to have been Vice-Chairman of the committee. I wish all members every success in their future endeavours.

Senator Lydon

On behalf of the members, we could not have had a better Vice-Chairman.

Deputy Mulcahy

During Deputy Haughey's time on the committee, he raised many important issues and instigated debates on several major topics. I congratulate him on his term and wish him every success on the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Environment and Local Government.

The joint committee adjourned at 12.05 p.m. until 2 p.m. on Thursday, 25 November 2004.