Paris, 28 February 2005. – Assembly President Stef Goris (Belgium, Liberal Group) met Andreas Khol, President of the Austrian National Assembly (Nationalrat), and Günther Platter, Austrian Minister for Defence, in Vienna, on 24-25 February 2005, for consultations about the future development of ESDP. Austria is due to hold the EU-Presidency from 1 January to 30 June 2006. President Goris invited Mr Platter to speak at the Assembly’s December session (Paris, 5-7 December 2005) to present the Presidency’s programme of work to the European national parliamentarians represented in the Assembly.
The Minister, a former member of the Assembly, thanked President Goris for his invitation, saying that Austria had a particular interest in security questions and wanted to take ESDP forward during its presidency. Governments were in need of a platform where European security and defence questions could be discussed by representatives in touch with the grass roots of their societies, who could explain government action to the wider public. The Presidency would focus particularly on defence capabilities and the work of the European Defence Agency. The Minister encouraged the Assembly to debate the future work of the Agency. He announced that a conference devoted to the situation in the Balkans would be held during the Austrian EU-Presidency. Austria currently had 850 soldiers stationed in the Balkans and was particularly interested in a stable situation there. He expected that sooner or later the EU would have to take on more responsibility. Mr Goris said that the Assembly would continue to publish reports on the situation in the Balkans and would naturally focus part of its work on the Defence Agency. Both agreed that the question of a status for Kosovo had to be resolved now and should not be deferred, in case the situation were again to become unstable.

Mr Platter also said that it was important to improve civil-military cooperation. Following the recent tsunami, European member states had been quick to respond individually to the catastrophe. He believed that the EU wanted in future to be better able to offer joint measures to regions touched by natural disasters and deploy support jointly. It was necessary to clarify the role military capabilities should have in humanitarian crisis situations. He foresaw that the EU would launch humanitarian operations making more use of military capabilities.
 
President Goris and Mr Platter also discussed the ongoing reform of the Austrian armed forces. The Minister confirmed his announcement earlier in the week that compulsory national service would be reduced from eight months to six as from January 2006. Compulsory national service would continue. It was a valuable source of new recruits, it gave young men the opportunity to find out about the Army and the career opportunities it offered and provided an essential link between the armed forces and society. President Goris, referring to his own country’s experience, said that where compulsory service was abolished, accompanying measures were necessary to pave the way for stable recruitment.
 

In his meeting with Andreas Khol, the Speaker of the Austrian National Assembly, President Goris explained that the Assembly planned to extend voting rights in its committees to parliamentarians from the observer countries: Austria, Denmark, Finland, Ireland and Sweden. President Khol and the members of the Austrian delegation to the Assembly (headed by Walter Murauer, spokesperson on defence of the Austrian People’s Party) welcomed the offer, which will allow the national parliamentarians of those countries to vote on recommendations in committee. It is anticipated that the extension of voting rights will be adopted during the Assembly’s upcoming plenary session in Paris on 13-15 June 2005.
 

Le Président Kohl et le Président Goris ont également parlé du futur rôle des parlements nationaux par rapport à la PESD. Le Président Kohl a déclaré que les représentants élus par le peuple avaient l’obligation de discuter au niveau national des missions envisagées avant d’approuver un déploiement de troupes dans le cadre d’une opération de gestion de crise. Si les troupes devaient être déployées au nom de l’UE, il devrait aussi exister un endroit où un débat de la même nature pourrait avoir lieu entre les parlementaires nationaux des pays membres de l’UE pour échanger des informations et des expériences.