European Union" "
The European Parliament met in plenary session in Brussels on 28 and 29 November. The assembly rejected the Fiori Report on the “ethical, juridical, economic and social implications of human genetics” (cf. the report on p. 4 of this number of SirEurope). On the other hand, the joint Resolution on the preparation for the European Council in Laeken on 14-15 December was adopted by a large majority. By this Resolution, the EP supports the decision to set up a Convention charged with the task of formulating the necessary institutional reforms for an enlarged Union, expresses the hope that an interim government representative of all the ethnic groups be established as soon as possible in Afghanistan and invites the Council and the UNO to guarantee humanitarian aid to the population and to the refugees. The Assembly also approved the Leinen and Mendez de Vigo Report on the “constitutional process and future of the Union”. The document emphasizes the role of the EP within the Convention charged with preparing the intergovernmental Conference for the reform of the Treaties, and recommends that its work be conducted under a Presidium composed of a President, a representative of the Commission, two representatives of the national Parliaments, two representatives of the EP and two of the Council. The EP declared itself favourable to the participation of permanent observers of the candidate countries, of the Court of Justice, of the Committee of the Regions and of the economic and social Committee. The MEPs ask that the work of the Convention be completed early enough to permit the proper functioning of the intergovernmental Conference and the adoption of the new Treaty by the end of 2003. Among its other provisions, the EP approved the Reports on the “European Governance” White Paper and on the European arrest warrant. The next plenary session will be held at Strasbourg from 10 to 13 December.
