Paris, 3 June 2008 – Jean-Pierre MASSERET, President of the Assembly, said on Tuesday that European Security and Defence Assembly should have a recognised role in the “democratic oversight” of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP).

Speaking at the opening of the Plenary session of the Assembly, Mr MASSERET announced the Assembly’s new Charter and Rules of Procedure, adopted on 6 May 2008, and stressed that the main objective was to offer all the parliamentarians of the EU member states “equal status” with “the same right to vote as that enjoyed by each government in the appropriate EU body, especially the Political and Security Committee”.

He stressed that this initiative was intended to confirm the Assembly as a “forum for reflection and analysis for national parliamentarians from European states – be they EU members or not – which make a contribution to the ESDP and the EU’s operational capability”. He went on to say that it was “not a matter of censuring government action but of supporting it” by providing the national parliaments with the opportunity to exercise real interparliamentary oversight of the ESDP. “This responsibility will not be called into question by the Lisbon Treaty, on the contrary”.

“Taking the name of European Security and Defence Assembly is fully justified. Such a title mirrors the democratic principle whereby parliamentarians, elected by the people, are responsible for exercising scrutiny over what concerns the lives of their fellow citizens. It is national parliamentarians who vote defence budgets and decide whether to deploy troops for European or international missions. Our Assembly, over the years and as Europe has evolved, has always made an effort to be open to parliamentarians from all states that wish to contribute to European security”.