European Assizes
Encyclopedia
The European Assizes was a one-off² assembly of the European Parliament
and the national parliaments of the member states of the European Union in Rome
in 1990 ahead of the intergovernmental negotiations that were to result in the Treaty of Maastricht.
Never before has a major international negotiation been preceded by a conference of the very parliaments that would later have to ratify the outcome of the negotiations. The fact that they did so, and concluded with a Declaration approved by an overwhelming majority (150 to 13) in which their expectations of the IGC were clearly expressed, was highly significant in building a body of support for reforms that were ultimtely included in the Maastricht treaty.
It was French President Mitterrand, in a speech to the European Parliament, on the 25 October 1989, who launched the term "Assizes". He asked "why should the European Parliament not organize assizes on the future of the Community in which, alongside your Assembly, delegations from national parliaments, the Commission and the governments would participate?". The European Parliament later seized upon this idea and linked it to the IGCs, conceiving of the "Assizes" as a joint parliamentary preparation for the IGCs.
After the European Parliament had taken up the idea, it was discussed in the regular meetings held by the Presidents of all the national parliaments and of the European Parliament. The Italian Camera dei Deputati offered to host the meeting. Details of the preparations were also discussed in standing Conference of Community and European Affairs Committees of Parliaments of the European Union
(COSAC).
It was agreed that approximately two-thirds of the participants would be from national parliaments and one-third from the European Parliament (a compromise between those who thought there should be an equal number of European and National parliamentarians and those who thought that the European Parliament should have a delegation of similar size to the largest national parliaments). Each national parliament would have a number of delegates equal to one-third the number of MEPs it had in the European Parliament, rounded to the nearest whole number (but with a slight adjustment for the smallest three parliaments leading to the national parliaments having, in fact, over two-thirds of the delegates: 173 to 85). For various reasons of protocol, the question of who formally convened the conference was left ambiguous, with most parliaments considering that it was "self-convened" by all the parliaments collectively. Although the meeting was formally entitled "Conference of the Parliaments of the European Community", the term "Assizes" soon gained usage in ordinary conversation despite its ambiguous meaning in the English language at least.
Each national parliament (though not necessarily each Chamber: in the U.K. for instance only the Lords) prepared written submissions to the Assizes, usually consisting of any resolutions adopted by that parliament on the matter or else of reports from the specialized committee. The European Parliament's contribution consisted of its proposed Treaty amendments.
Debates took place on the floor of the Italian Camera dei Deputati over a four-day period. Besides the actual participants, speeches were made by the President of the Italian Republic, Mr. Cossiga, the President of the European Commission, Mr. Jacques Delors and the President of the Council, Mr. Andreotti. Debates were presided over by a triumvirate consisting of the presidents of the two Italian Chambers (Iotti and Spadolini) and EP President Baron.
The final Declaration was prepared by a drafting committee consisting of the Chairman of the specialized committees in national parliaments that deal with European affairs together with eight MEPs. Under the rules agreed beforehand by the presidents, and approved by the plenary at the opening, the drafting committee would submit a text which could be approved by the plenary only by an absolute majority of participants. Amendments could also be tabled in plenary, but would similarly require an absolute majority of participants in order to be adopted.
The issue of seating arrangements in the Assizes was a matter of some controversy. The initial seating consisted of each national parliamentary delegation sitting together as a block, with the European Parliament delegation in the centre part of the hemicycle, divided into its political groups. At the opening of the first session of the Assizes, however, participants voted by a large majority to sit instead according to political affiliation. It was argued that this was a more 'European ' arrangement and that differences of point of view were more on a political basis than a national basis.
The decision to sit and operate in transparty political groupings had not met with universal approval. The British Conservatives - not then part of any Europe wide grouping - had opposed it. Laurent Fabius, then President of the French Assemblée Nationale but also an MEP and member of Parliament's Committee on Institutional Affairs, had initially also opposed the idea, but following a dinner of Socialist delegation leaders the evening before the Assizes organised by Jean-Pierre Cot, at which almost all leaders spoke in favour of sitting by political family, he not only accepted the idea but agreed to Cot's proposal that he, given his unique position as MEP and President of a national parliament, should formally move it in the plenary the following day.
This decision was to prove important from the whole dynamics of the Assizes. The political groupings met before or after the daily sittings of the Assizes in order to consider jointly their position on different questions, not least the final declaration and amendments thereto. The secretariats of the political groups in the European Parliament provided facilities for these meetings, and the core of MEPs within each grouping, having the best international contacts and, frequently, the best linguistic skills, were often among the key actors in such meetings.
Some of the political groups in the European Parliament had already organised pre-meetings with their counterparts in the national parliaments the day before the Assizes in Rome. This was the case for the Socialist, Christian Democrat, Liberal and Green groups. Indeed, the Socialist's meeting adopted a "declaration" of Socialist participants in the Assizes, equipping Socialist participants - both national and European - with a set of positions before entering the Assizes. This text was negotiated by consensus among the various Socialist party delegation leaders, with more cautious parties being encouraged to shift position. The acceptance by the UK Labour Party delegation of full economic and monetary union, for instance, was a significant shift, endorsed two days later by the party's National Executive Committee.
The drafting committee worked on the basis of an initial draft prepared by Charles Ferdinand Nothomb, President of the Belgian Chamber of Deputies (and former Foreign Minister and MEP) . As Chairman of the Belgian Chamber, he was ex-officio Chairman of its mixed committee on European Affairs, and was therefore the one person present both at meetings of Presidents of Parliaments and of the meetings of COSAC, both of which had been involved in the preparation of the Assizes. His offer to chair the drafting committee and to submit a first draft was readily accepted.
Mr. Nothomb submitted his first draft to the drafting committee only on the evening of the first full day of the Assizes (Tuesday, 27 November). He had used the previous twenty-four hours to hold informal consultations with delegation leaders. The initial draft was then examined by the drafting committee which fixed a deadline of 10 o'clock for that same evening for its members to submit amendments. These amendments were then discussed the next day by the drafting committee. If a vote was needed, a simple majority was enough to adopt them. Some eighty amendments were submitted, about half of which were adopted.
Within the drafting committee, there were naturally differences of opinion. The Chairmen of the national parliamentary committees largely reflected the position of the majority in their parliaments and were therefore close to the position of their respective governments, but sometimes the differences went beyond this. The House of Commons Committee, for instance, was chaired by Nigel Spearing, MP (Labour), a long-standing eurosceptic. The French Senate's Committee was chaired by Jacques Genton, a Gaullist Eurosceptic. The Committee of the Assemblee Nationale was chaired by Charles Josselin who, whilst generally a mainstream French Socialist pro-European, was among sponsors of a proposal to establish a "Congress" of national parliamentarians at European level, an idea which in the end did not receive majority support at the Assizes.
The text of the drafting committee was submitted to the plenary, where it had been agreed that amendments could be tabled if signed by five or more members. Some 222 amendments were submitted, largely as a result of discussions in meetings of the political groupings, but also by some national delegations (though some were later withdrawn).
The final sitting on Friday morning was given over almost entirely to the votes on the amendments and the text. By this time - and all the more so as the morning progressed - many members had left to catch planes or to return to their country for other reasons. Absences at this stage particularly affected German delegates (who were a few days away from a General Election) and Italians (who, being local, were particularly prey to domestic political distractions). As a result, the requirement that an amendment secure a majority of participants (i.e. 130 votes to be adopted) meant in practice, some three-quarters of those present. As a result, only 25 amendments were adopted.
When it came to the final vote only 189 members were still present and the text was adopted by 150 votes to 13. Looking at those who were absent, however, it can safely be said that it would otherwise have been adopted by an even larger majority.
The Declaration supported, inter-alia, the creation of a monetary union governed by an autonomous central banking system and issuing a single currency; the establishment of a political union with common foreign and security policy on matters of common interest (incorporating the then "European Political Cooperation" into the European Community structures); a strengthening of the treaty provisions on economic and social cohesion; the inclusion in the treaty of provisions to establish European citizenship; inclusion of the declaration of fundamental rights to the treaties; European Community to have competences in the field of the environment; the transformation of the European Community into a European Union on the basis of the Constitution to be drawn up with the aid of the procedures in which the European Parliament and national parliaments will take part; the Commission to progressively take on the role of the Union's executive; Parliament and Council to play equal parts in the legislative and budgetary procedures; unanimity in the Council to be limited to exceptional cases; the European Parliament to elect the President of the Commission on a proposal from the European Council (and that President then to appoint the remaining Commissioners and obtain a collective vote of confidence from the European Parliament); a synchronisation of the term of office of the Commission with that of the European Parliament; greater cooperation between the European Parliament and national parliaments; the inscription on the principle of subsidiarity into the treaty.
Most, though not all, these elements were eventually included in the Maastricht Treaty.
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
and the national parliaments of the member states of the European Union in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in 1990 ahead of the intergovernmental negotiations that were to result in the Treaty of Maastricht.
Never before has a major international negotiation been preceded by a conference of the very parliaments that would later have to ratify the outcome of the negotiations. The fact that they did so, and concluded with a Declaration approved by an overwhelming majority (150 to 13) in which their expectations of the IGC were clearly expressed, was highly significant in building a body of support for reforms that were ultimtely included in the Maastricht treaty.
It was French President Mitterrand, in a speech to the European Parliament, on the 25 October 1989, who launched the term "Assizes". He asked "why should the European Parliament not organize assizes on the future of the Community in which, alongside your Assembly, delegations from national parliaments, the Commission and the governments would participate?". The European Parliament later seized upon this idea and linked it to the IGCs, conceiving of the "Assizes" as a joint parliamentary preparation for the IGCs.
After the European Parliament had taken up the idea, it was discussed in the regular meetings held by the Presidents of all the national parliaments and of the European Parliament. The Italian Camera dei Deputati offered to host the meeting. Details of the preparations were also discussed in standing Conference of Community and European Affairs Committees of Parliaments of the European Union
Conference of Community and European Affairs Committees of Parliaments of the European Union
The Conference of Community and European Affairs Committees of Parliaments of the European Union is a conference of Members of the European Parliament and national Members of Parliament who are drawn from parliamentary committees responsible for European Union affairs.-History and role:COSAC was...
(COSAC).
It was agreed that approximately two-thirds of the participants would be from national parliaments and one-third from the European Parliament (a compromise between those who thought there should be an equal number of European and National parliamentarians and those who thought that the European Parliament should have a delegation of similar size to the largest national parliaments). Each national parliament would have a number of delegates equal to one-third the number of MEPs it had in the European Parliament, rounded to the nearest whole number (but with a slight adjustment for the smallest three parliaments leading to the national parliaments having, in fact, over two-thirds of the delegates: 173 to 85). For various reasons of protocol, the question of who formally convened the conference was left ambiguous, with most parliaments considering that it was "self-convened" by all the parliaments collectively. Although the meeting was formally entitled "Conference of the Parliaments of the European Community", the term "Assizes" soon gained usage in ordinary conversation despite its ambiguous meaning in the English language at least.
Each national parliament (though not necessarily each Chamber: in the U.K. for instance only the Lords) prepared written submissions to the Assizes, usually consisting of any resolutions adopted by that parliament on the matter or else of reports from the specialized committee. The European Parliament's contribution consisted of its proposed Treaty amendments.
Debates took place on the floor of the Italian Camera dei Deputati over a four-day period. Besides the actual participants, speeches were made by the President of the Italian Republic, Mr. Cossiga, the President of the European Commission, Mr. Jacques Delors and the President of the Council, Mr. Andreotti. Debates were presided over by a triumvirate consisting of the presidents of the two Italian Chambers (Iotti and Spadolini) and EP President Baron.
The final Declaration was prepared by a drafting committee consisting of the Chairman of the specialized committees in national parliaments that deal with European affairs together with eight MEPs. Under the rules agreed beforehand by the presidents, and approved by the plenary at the opening, the drafting committee would submit a text which could be approved by the plenary only by an absolute majority of participants. Amendments could also be tabled in plenary, but would similarly require an absolute majority of participants in order to be adopted.
The issue of seating arrangements in the Assizes was a matter of some controversy. The initial seating consisted of each national parliamentary delegation sitting together as a block, with the European Parliament delegation in the centre part of the hemicycle, divided into its political groups. At the opening of the first session of the Assizes, however, participants voted by a large majority to sit instead according to political affiliation. It was argued that this was a more 'European ' arrangement and that differences of point of view were more on a political basis than a national basis.
The decision to sit and operate in transparty political groupings had not met with universal approval. The British Conservatives - not then part of any Europe wide grouping - had opposed it. Laurent Fabius, then President of the French Assemblée Nationale but also an MEP and member of Parliament's Committee on Institutional Affairs, had initially also opposed the idea, but following a dinner of Socialist delegation leaders the evening before the Assizes organised by Jean-Pierre Cot, at which almost all leaders spoke in favour of sitting by political family, he not only accepted the idea but agreed to Cot's proposal that he, given his unique position as MEP and President of a national parliament, should formally move it in the plenary the following day.
This decision was to prove important from the whole dynamics of the Assizes. The political groupings met before or after the daily sittings of the Assizes in order to consider jointly their position on different questions, not least the final declaration and amendments thereto. The secretariats of the political groups in the European Parliament provided facilities for these meetings, and the core of MEPs within each grouping, having the best international contacts and, frequently, the best linguistic skills, were often among the key actors in such meetings.
Some of the political groups in the European Parliament had already organised pre-meetings with their counterparts in the national parliaments the day before the Assizes in Rome. This was the case for the Socialist, Christian Democrat, Liberal and Green groups. Indeed, the Socialist's meeting adopted a "declaration" of Socialist participants in the Assizes, equipping Socialist participants - both national and European - with a set of positions before entering the Assizes. This text was negotiated by consensus among the various Socialist party delegation leaders, with more cautious parties being encouraged to shift position. The acceptance by the UK Labour Party delegation of full economic and monetary union, for instance, was a significant shift, endorsed two days later by the party's National Executive Committee.
The drafting committee worked on the basis of an initial draft prepared by Charles Ferdinand Nothomb, President of the Belgian Chamber of Deputies (and former Foreign Minister and MEP) . As Chairman of the Belgian Chamber, he was ex-officio Chairman of its mixed committee on European Affairs, and was therefore the one person present both at meetings of Presidents of Parliaments and of the meetings of COSAC, both of which had been involved in the preparation of the Assizes. His offer to chair the drafting committee and to submit a first draft was readily accepted.
Mr. Nothomb submitted his first draft to the drafting committee only on the evening of the first full day of the Assizes (Tuesday, 27 November). He had used the previous twenty-four hours to hold informal consultations with delegation leaders. The initial draft was then examined by the drafting committee which fixed a deadline of 10 o'clock for that same evening for its members to submit amendments. These amendments were then discussed the next day by the drafting committee. If a vote was needed, a simple majority was enough to adopt them. Some eighty amendments were submitted, about half of which were adopted.
Within the drafting committee, there were naturally differences of opinion. The Chairmen of the national parliamentary committees largely reflected the position of the majority in their parliaments and were therefore close to the position of their respective governments, but sometimes the differences went beyond this. The House of Commons Committee, for instance, was chaired by Nigel Spearing, MP (Labour), a long-standing eurosceptic. The French Senate's Committee was chaired by Jacques Genton, a Gaullist Eurosceptic. The Committee of the Assemblee Nationale was chaired by Charles Josselin who, whilst generally a mainstream French Socialist pro-European, was among sponsors of a proposal to establish a "Congress" of national parliamentarians at European level, an idea which in the end did not receive majority support at the Assizes.
The text of the drafting committee was submitted to the plenary, where it had been agreed that amendments could be tabled if signed by five or more members. Some 222 amendments were submitted, largely as a result of discussions in meetings of the political groupings, but also by some national delegations (though some were later withdrawn).
The final sitting on Friday morning was given over almost entirely to the votes on the amendments and the text. By this time - and all the more so as the morning progressed - many members had left to catch planes or to return to their country for other reasons. Absences at this stage particularly affected German delegates (who were a few days away from a General Election) and Italians (who, being local, were particularly prey to domestic political distractions). As a result, the requirement that an amendment secure a majority of participants (i.e. 130 votes to be adopted) meant in practice, some three-quarters of those present. As a result, only 25 amendments were adopted.
When it came to the final vote only 189 members were still present and the text was adopted by 150 votes to 13. Looking at those who were absent, however, it can safely be said that it would otherwise have been adopted by an even larger majority.
The Declaration supported, inter-alia, the creation of a monetary union governed by an autonomous central banking system and issuing a single currency; the establishment of a political union with common foreign and security policy on matters of common interest (incorporating the then "European Political Cooperation" into the European Community structures); a strengthening of the treaty provisions on economic and social cohesion; the inclusion in the treaty of provisions to establish European citizenship; inclusion of the declaration of fundamental rights to the treaties; European Community to have competences in the field of the environment; the transformation of the European Community into a European Union on the basis of the Constitution to be drawn up with the aid of the procedures in which the European Parliament and national parliaments will take part; the Commission to progressively take on the role of the Union's executive; Parliament and Council to play equal parts in the legislative and budgetary procedures; unanimity in the Council to be limited to exceptional cases; the European Parliament to elect the President of the Commission on a proposal from the European Council (and that President then to appoint the remaining Commissioners and obtain a collective vote of confidence from the European Parliament); a synchronisation of the term of office of the Commission with that of the European Parliament; greater cooperation between the European Parliament and national parliaments; the inscription on the principle of subsidiarity into the treaty.
Most, though not all, these elements were eventually included in the Maastricht Treaty.
See also
- European ConventionEuropean ConventionThe Convention on the Future of Europe , was a body established by the European Council in December 2001 as a result of the Laeken Declaration...
- Joint parliamentary meeting on the Future of EuropeJoint parliamentary meeting on the Future of EuropeThe Joint parliamentary meeting on the Future of Europe is a meeting of parliamentarians from the European Parliament and from the national parliaments of the member states of the European Union on the topic of the future of the European Union. The first of these meetings occurred on...
- List of national parliaments of the member states of the European Union