Chairman gives keynote speech at COSAC plenary in Rome
5 December 2014
On 1 December, the Chairman of the EU Committee, Lord Boswell of Aynho, gave a keynote speech on the role of national parliaments in the EU during the 52nd Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs (COSAC) in Rome.
- Lord Boswell's keynote speech: 52nd COSAC
- Italian Presidency parliamentary dimension: 52nd COSAC
- Report: The Role of National Parliaments in the EU
- Factsheet: The Role of National Parliaments
- Storify: @LordsEUCom summary of the conference
The Role of National Parliaments
Keynote speech
Lord Boswell gave a keynote speech in the debate on ‘The Future of Supranational Democracy Five Years after Lisbon’, which was opened by the First Vice-President of the Commission, Frans Timmermans.
In his speech, Lord Boswell argued that national parliaments, the European Parliament, the European Commission, and national governments should work together to make the EU more democratic, more secure and more prosperous. He said that the existing ‘yellow card’ procedure, defined in the EU treaties, was too reactive, and that further work was needed to establish an effective role for national parliaments in the EU.
Commission speech
The First Vice-President welcomed the engagement of national parliaments with the EU’s policy-formation and legislative processes. He reiterated the commitment of the new Commission to attending national parliaments to discuss their views on EU policies and draft legislative proposals. He also drew attention to the importance of national parliaments scrutinising governments’ actions in the Council of the European Union.
Delegation and debates
Lord Boswell was accompanied at COSAC by Baroness Quin, Chairman of the EU Justice Sub-Committee, and Lord Sharkey, a member of the EU Home Affairs Sub-Committee.
In the debate on the Italian Presidency of the EU, Baroness Quin drew attention to the work of the EU Committee on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Lord Sharkey contributed to the debate on the role of national parliaments, saying that it was necessary for national parliaments to collaborate to produce concrete results.