How can we be more united?

“To contribute to laying the foundations for the Europe of the future, helping it to become rooted among the people, providing supplementary monitoring of the specific issues of subsidiarity and proportionality and driving forward major European policies”. These are the tasks identified by José Luis Zapatero, Spanish premier and EU President-in-office, for the parliaments of EU-27, whose representatives convened in Madrid May 30-June 1st. The new responsibilities of the European Parliament and of national parliaments provided for in the Lisbon Treaty was the main theme on the agenda of the plenary session of COSAC (Conference of Community and European Affairs Committee), as envisaged in the Treaties. The role of the national parliaments. COSAC is body made up of MEPs and MPs from the 27 national parliaments of the EU. Items on the agenda included debates on the subsidiarity principle, on the role of COSAC to the light of the reforms introduced by the new treaty and the speech by Maros Sefcovic, Commission vice-President, to illustrate the program of the Executive. A round table focused on the theme of “The new model for inter-parliamentary relations in the post-Lisbon Treaty era”. The Final “Conclusions” centred on COSAC’s upcoming commitments, while participants produced a document on Europe’s topical issues: economic crisis, climate change (preparation for the Cancun summit): regional strategies, enlargement. In his opening address Zapatero underscored the role of national parliaments, which must “contribute to laying the foundations for the Europe of the future, helping it to become rooted among the people, providing supplementary monitoring of the specific issues of subsidiarity and proportionality and driving forward major European policies”, and called for “more efficient economic governance”. Moreover, President Zapatero recalled that the EU is preparing specific Eurozone measures, along with the “support package” for Greece. In envisioning the end of the crisis Zapatero highlighted the 2020 European Strategy, to “move towards a new model of economic growth”, which will enable us to confront the challenges “linked to development and social inclusion”. Creating ad hoc tools to combat the crisis. During the COSAC assembly – marked by a lively debate between EU27 MEPs and EU institution representatives – Maros Sefcovic, Commission vice-President and Commissioner for Inter-institutional Relations and Administration called for “stepping up cooperation between parliaments and Member States, European Parliament and Commission, in order to boost the community integration process and draw citizens closer to European democracy”. In this direction the Slovakian Commissioner urged “national parliaments” to “adopt EU regulations thus enforcing common policies and EU provisions”. Sefcovic presented the Commission’s agenda for the next five-year period and delved into current international affairs issues. “The ongoing unprecedented crisis has shown that ours is a rapidly changing society. We must be prepared. The financial crisis triggered a crisis in real economy and heavily affected national budgets. The case of Greece is paradigmatic”. Sefcovic pointed out: “Until now our efforts have been directed to preventing the families, the economies, the businesses, and the banks from falling into a chasm. The Eurozone is attacked by speculators. It is a question that ought to be addressed urgently in order to prevent negative consequences on national budgets”.National budgets and stability. Sefcovic remarked: “We ought to focus on three themes in order to prevent and counter the crises. The priority need is to step up governance cooperation; secondly, it is necessary that Eurostat be granted greater responsibility in order to monitor the situation whilst a mechanism to prevent speculation ought be adopted”. As relates to national budgets sustainability the Executive vice-president announced “new initiatives” by the Commissioners College, which includes “the Green Paper on pension systems to be presented in the short run”. It is said that the Commission intends to control national budgets. This isn’t true. Conversely, the aim is to obtain a snapshot of Europe in order to verify that national budgets comply with the Stability Pact criteria. Indeed, the measure is not for control but for prevention, aimed at sound balances” in order to positively intervene in real economies and welfare systems. Talks in Madrid also focused on security (Stockholm Program), citizenship, enlargement, support to Regions, the Mediterranean and the Balkans.