Paris, 10 November 2006 –  The Assembly Contact Group, comprising the President of the Assembly, Committee Chairmen and Political Group leaders, met in Berlin on 6 November for high-level political talks with representatives of the German Government and the Bundestag to prepare the forthcoming German EU/WEU Presidency. Rolf Nikel, representing the Chancellor’s Office and Gernot Erler, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, set out the priorities for the German Presidency of the European Union for the first half of 2007 – namely, stabilisation of the western Balkans, strengthening the EU Russia partnership and discussions on reforms for Europe’s future. Germany would, in particular, endeavour to prepare the EU's civilian missions in Kosovo, renegotiate the EU-Russian Partnership Agreement, due for renewal, and relaunch discussions on the draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. With this in mind, all of the German senior officials attending the meetings reminded those present that 18 countries had already ratified the draft treaty, whilst only two had not done so. They wanted to avoid a selective approach that would lead to the global agreement – negotiated after much work – unravelling, feeling that “cherry picking” specific points of the draft treaty had to be avoided and that the best approach would be to adopt a open attitude, without preconceptions, if a global solution was to be reached by the second half of 2008 under the EU French Presidency and before the June 2009 European elections. Christian Schmidt, State Secretary for Defence, confirmed that Germany’s commitment to European Union operations would continue and that German forces would remain in Bosnia and Herzegovina, only being withdrawn after consultation with other partners and taking into account the general situation in the region. Walter Kolbow, Vice-Chairman of the SPD parliamentary group, stated that the ESDP was one of the most dynamic European Union policies and that over 70% of the German population were in favour of it.

Following the Assembly Contact Group’s very encouraging meetings in Berlin, Jean-Pierre Masseret (France, Socialist Group), President of the Assembly, welcomed the fact that basically there was agreement that “effective parliamentary scrutiny of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) is essential. For it to happen, national parliamentarians must be involved in the decision-making process at a very early stage, well before decisions are approved at European level. The interparliamentary forum which is the Assembly provides both support for the European Union’s current ESDP activities and a space for reflecting on essential medium and long-term strategies. The “intergovernmental” aspects of European security and defence policy must continue to be subject to “interparliamentary” scrutiny”.