National parliaments and the construction of Europe

Resolution 989 (1992)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 5 October 1992 (16th and 17th Sittings) (seeDoc. 6673, report of the Committee on Parliamentary and Public Relations, Rapporteur : Mr Masseret). Text adopted by the Assembly on 5 October 1992 (17th Sitting).

Thesaurus

1. The Assembly welcomes the conference organised with the Belgian Parliament on the theme ‘‘national parliaments and the construction of Europe'' (Brussels, 26-27 May 1992), attended by representatives of some thirty national parliaments, the European Parliament and the assemblies of Western European Union, Benelux and the Nordic Council.

2. It shares the participants' conviction that :

2.1 peace cannot be achieved without a political project reflecting the whole continent's aspiration to commit its geographical, historical and cultural unity to an overall political organisation respecting the equality and diversity of all its members ;

2.2 it is a matter of urgency to make good the ‘‘democratic shortfall'' threatening the very political basis of European construction, if we are not to see citizens turning away from Europe and the resurgence of exacerbated nationalism or the emergence of closed corporatism ;

2.3 national parliaments, which represent the people, are ideal forums for the democratic debate, which must define European construction policies in accordance with citizens' wishes ;

2.4 elected representatives must seek the means of securing wide public participation in this grass-roots debate by informing the public of the issues involved in the various possible options ;

2.5 drawing on the guidelines emerging from such consultation and the democratic debate, national parliaments must develop interparliamentary co-operation, not only between themselves or within the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, but also in the context of conferences attendedby representatives of national parliaments and delegations from the assemblies of the various European organisations.

3. For that reason the Assembly invites national parliaments :

3.1 to make European construction one of their priority subjects of debate ;

3.2 to contribute to the development of European interparliamentary co-operation, which cannot fail to reinforce their own role ;

3.3 to marshall the resources for meticulous monitoring of the work of the European assemblies and to step up their co-operation with them ;

3.4 to convey to their respective governments their support for the proposals contained in Recommendation 1193 (1992) on the future of European construction ;

3.5 to take steps to enable all citizens to participate more fully in the political project of European construction.