Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-03-12-Speech-3-157"
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"en.20030312.4.3-157"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, no European security and defence policy existed until 1999, when it was one of the fruits of the lessons we learned in the Balkans. There, we had the experience, in 1999, during the Kosovo conflict, of being able to speak with one voice after a decade of discord; if, though, the United States of America had said that this was a European matter that we had to deal with ourselves, we would not have been in a position to do so. That is why this joint response force has to be built up by 2003, and the fact that we will then be making a start, albeit with a small mission, is, I believe, an important step in terms of European integration policy, whilst underlining at the same time the fact that it is being taken in cooperation with the Americans and with NATO, rather than in opposition to them.
It will, during this stage, be increasingly important to have due regard to the European Union's institutions and to remain within the bounds of its institutional structures. In was with this in mind that, on 25 November 2002, in the course of the Budget procedure, Parliament and the Council agreed on a statement on the financing of the common foreign and security policy, which statement, firstly, stresses the point that Parliament is to be informed about all basic options under the common foreign and security policy and their financial implications. To this day, the Council has not once complied with that requirement, but this is to be done in future, with a summary being presented, in its own dossier, to Parliament by 15 June.
Another point is, though, that the Council is not only to do this once a year, but is to promptly state the amount of the prospective costs involved in any and every specific decision in the field of the common foreign and security policy entailing expenditure. This is a new measure agreed on in November. After some hesitation, we are glad that the Greek Presidency, during the most recent consultation with Parliament, undertook to make available to Parliament all the information that had initially been withheld, including that on costs and personnel. I see this as an important decision and as complementing that on the political principle of involving Parliament.
We are well aware that, even though the Western European Union has since been integrated into the European Union, its Parliamentary Assembly continues to exist, the argument for this being that the national parliaments have to keep on meeting together on a regular basis, as the European Parliament does not yet possess rights of control. This example shows how we are already involved in this area. Building on this and, in the event of future missions, such as the taking over of the SFOR mandate, informing this Parliament in due time, is an important step, and what Mr von Wogau said about giving this its own firm place in the European constitution is something I can unreservedly endorse."@en1
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