Paris, 3 June, 2004 – Spain’s State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Bernardino León Gross, on Thursday paid tribute to the Assembly which for many years had performed the sterling task of reporting back to national parliaments and public opinion in member countries and the efforts made at intergovernmental level to bolster the effectiveness and solidarity of Europe’s defence dimension and the ESDP. Spain was now more committed than ever to this goal with the new Spanish Government “in the forefront of these efforts”.

Long plagued by terrorism, Spain had understood “from a very early stage” the importance of greater solidarity and international cooperation to combat that scourge. Progress had been made over the past five years in relation to the ESDP, but much still needed to be done to create coordination mechanisms and instruments in order to be able to take the right decisions for conflict prevention, crisis management and fighting terrorism. The ESDP was not an alternative to NATO, but should help establish a more balanced strategic partnership between the EU and the Atlantic Alliance.

Speaking before Spain ends its six-month EU/WEU presidency on 30 June, Mr León Gross said the country’s new government regretted that doubt had been cast on its “robust” response to terrorism, and that actions as well as a political will expressed verbally were already demonstrating that fighting terrorism was a priority for Spain. He welcomed the fact the EU draft Constitutional Treaty provisions updating the list of Petersberg missions had been applied early to help Spain after the Madrid train terrorist attacks in March. He noted that the draft Constitution had overcome the misunderstanding on mutual defence and respected specific defence policies without undermining solidarity. Structured cooperation should be open to all EU members that were willing and able to cooperate, he said.

Asked why the WEU Council had not invited eastern European countries to join WEU as observers or associate members, Mr León Gross said the Spanish Government agreed with the Council that now was not the time to welcome newcomers, in view of the rethink of European defence. He added that the EU needed “to face up” to other crises, such as those in Sierra Leone or Dafur in Sudan, and that Spain would “support any initiative to give Europe greater responsibility in responding” to crises. Spain and its allies were looking at the Kosovo question, he said. The new government felt that the instruments used in Kosovo had been a failure. The EU had been unable to provide an appropriate response to the crisis.

Replying to criticism that WEU Secretary-General Javier Solana had not addressed the Assembly since December 2001, Mr León Gross assured parliamentarians that Mr Solana took a great interest in WEU and said he would “pass on” concerns about his absence. “I am sure he will take them on board”, he added.

On the question of a parliamentary dimension, Mr León Gross said that “there must be parliamentary scrutiny at all times”, and that coordination between national parliaments and the European Parliament “could be an effective and flexible formula” to enable the Assembly’s work to continue. He stressed the new Spanish Government’s determination to resolve the democratic deficit and criticised its predecessor for not consulting the national parliament before going to war in Iraq. A decision on whether to participate in the replacement force in Haiti would be taken only after a parliamentary debate, he said.