Paris, 12 May 2005. – Dr Giovanna Bono from the Institute for European Studies at the Brussels Free University (VUB) presented the findings of her research on “National parliaments and EU external military operations: is there any parliamentary control?” to the members of the Assembly’s Committee for Parliamentary and Public Relations yesterday. The objective of her research, as opposed to other studies that tend to focus on a comparison of constitutional powers, was to analyse the performance of the British, French, German and Italian national parliaments when it comes to scrutinising EU military operations.
 

Dr Bono’s research into the EU’s first military missions, Operations Concordia and Artemis, which was funded by the British Academy and the European Commission, sustains the thesis of a democratic deficit in ESDP (European Security and Defence Policy). In several instances she found that governments informed national parliaments only after the decision to launch an operation had been taken in the EU Council and, despite the groundbreaking nature of these first EU military operations, only a few parliamentary debates had taken place. With the exception of the British and German parliaments few questions were asked. Also, some governments used the pretext of lack of time or made use of so-called urgent procedures in order to bypass oversight by the competent committees in their national parliaments. In the interviews she conducted, parliamentarians complained about the sometimes “excessive” use of these urgent procedures by governments.

Dr Bono believes that interparliamentary forums and increased cooperation between national parliaments and the European Parliament could improve the democratic accountability of European governments. She found that the members of the national parliaments’ delegations to the NATO and WEU Assemblies had been better informed. However, interparliamentary assemblies needed to be given additional formal powers to be able to scrutinise action taken by the NATO, EU and OSCE Councils. National parliaments needed to ensure that procedures for consultation between their governments and their Defence, Foreign Affairs and European Affairs Committees were respected and strengthened.

In her view, the provisions of the Constitutional Treaty will not remedy the democratic deficit of ESDP because they are restricted to the phase after the decision to launch an operation has been taken by the Council. In her opinion what is missing are “provisions that allow for parliamentary involvement in the phase before the decision-making”. She also doubted whether COSAC (the Conference of Community and European Affairs Committees of Parliaments of the European Union) as a possible host to interparliamentary conferences on ESDP would be the appropriate forum given that during her research parliamentarians had generally been critical of COSAC’s efficiency.

Milos Budin (Italy, Socialist Group), Chairman of the Committee for Parliamentary and Public Relations welcomed Dr Bono’s research and said he hoped it would be possible to continue her research and extend it to other national parliaments and military operations.

A summary of Dr Bono’s research findings is available at http://www.ies.be. The full report can be obtained at ies@vub.ac.be