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Rome - The Croatian Parliament positively assesses the European Commission's policy on strengthening dialogue with national parliaments, however, it believes that that dialogue should not be reduced to mere reporting but should serve as a platform for consultations on the making of European policies, Parliament Speaker Josip Leko said at an annual conference of speakers of EU parliaments in Rome on Tuesday.
Leko supported the proposal by the Irish parliament to introduce day-long annual conferences of representatives of national parliaments and EC officials in Brussels. He believes that such meetings would be particularly useful if held before the presentation of the EC's annual programmes, as well as in the early stages of devising certain EU policies.
Leko also underlined the "green card" institute as the strongest instrument national parliaments have in decision-making processes in the EU. As regards cooperation with the European Parliament (EP), Leko said that the relationship between national parliaments and the EP should be one of mutual complementing rather than competition. He advocated continuing the strengthening of cooperation and information exchange, notably with some EP rapporteurs, depending on specific interests of national parliaments.
The two-day meeting of EU parliamentary speakers in Rome, which ended on Tuesday, discussed ways of overcoming the current financial crisis, further promotion of basic human rights, security challenges and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). (Hina)