Strasbourg, 3 June -- A permanent link should be created between the COSAC (the Conference of European Affairs Committees of the Parliaments of the European Union) and the WEU Assembly, if the European Convention proposal for COSAC to be placed in charge of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) is implemented, Dinos Vrettos, Vice-President of the Greek Parliament, Chairman of the Parliament’s European Affairs Committee and Chairman of COSAC, said on Tuesday.

He said: “I do not think it is sensible for COSAC to take on security and defence matters, as the Convention envisages. COSAC has other issues to concentrate on, above all easing the workload of national parliaments in assessing whether legislative proposals drafted by the European Commission comply with the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality”.

“There should be a permanent link between the WEU Assembly and COSAC so that we can use our powers in the best possible way to arrive at a correct parliamentary evaluation of European issues, among them those that concern the security and defence of the Union.”

He said that if some of the proposals put forward by the WEU Assembly had been implemented, Europe would have “produced better (defence) results than we have done.”  He rejected the idea of creating an EU senate or upper house, because it would weaken the role of national parliaments. The Assembly should continue to serve as a forum for an exchange of views on European security and defence, added Mr. Vrettos.