EUU, Alm.del - 2011-12 - Bilag 286: Referat af Trojka-møde og COSAC-formandsmøde 29.-30/1-12

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE CHAIRPERSONS OF COSACCopenhagen, Denmark, 30 January 2012AGENDA:1. Opening address by Mr Mogens LYKKETOFT, Speaker of the DanishFolketing2. Adoption of agenda and procedural questions.3. Priorities for Climate and Energy policies 2020 – guest speaker: Ms ConnieHEDEGAARD, Commissioner for Climate Action4. The sovereign debt crisis, European Economic Governance and democraticaccoutability - guest speaker: Mr Maroš ŠEFČOVIČ, Commissioner for Inter-Institutional Relations and AdministrationPROCEEDINGSIN THE CHAIR: Ms Eva KJER HANSEN, Chairman of the European Affairs Committee(Folketinget, Denmark).Ms KJER HANSEN welcomed the following new Chairpersons: Ms Zanda KALNINA -LUKAŠEVICA, LatvianSaeima,Ms Agnieszka POMASKA, PolishSejm,Mr AverofNEOFYTOU, CypriotVouli ton Antiprosopon,and Mr Dominic HANNIGAN, IrishHousesof the Oireachtas.1. Opening address by Mr Mogens LYKKETOFT, Speaker of the Danish ParliamentMr LYKKETOFT opened the meeting by highlighting the opportunity for nationalParliaments to play a bigger role in the EU after the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon.Thereby hopefully enhancing democracy, as support from the European citizens is moreimportant than ever. He stated that COSAC is a forum for meaningful dialogue betweennational Parliaments and the EU institutions and that the Danish Parliament is committed toensuring the necessary coordination and cooperation to foster this dialogue. He went on totalk about the parliamentary dimension of the Danish presidency and said that theFolketingwould host a number of interparliamentary meetings focusing on the most pressing issuesfacing the EU. He announced that Baroness Ashton, High Representative of the Union forForeign Affairs and Security Policy, and Mr Anders FOGH RASMUSSEN, NATO SecretaryGeneral, would attend the COFACC meeting in March. Mr LYKKETOFT also mentionedother topics that would be dealt with during the Danish presidency; the financial crisis, theCAP-reform, energy efficiency, the environmental action plan and the re-launch of the SingleMarket. Lastly, he thanked the EU institutions for their commitment to theseinterparliamentary meetings.In her welcome address, Ms KJER HANSEN said that the Danish Presidency would worktirelessly to get Europe back on track through the promotion of economic stability, budgetdiscipline, sustainable growth and creating jobs. She hoped that the agreement to be reachedat the EU summit on the new budget pact would help restore confidence in the Europeaneconomy, but would also respect national Parliaments' budgetary powers. Ms KJERHANSEN stressed the need to strengthen the political dialogue with the EuropeanCommission ensuring that national Parliaments are adequately and timely consulted ondifferent relevant issues.

2. Adoption of agenda and procedural questionsThe agenda was adopted by the Chairpersons without amendments. Ms KJER HANSENinformed the participants that the Troika had discussed the draft agenda for the XLVIICOSAC in April and the Presidency had agreed to include a guest speaker from the EuropeanParliament. Ms KJER HANSEN moved on to the consideration of the draft outline of the 17thBi-annual Report on which a few comments were made including a call from Ms AstridTHORS, FinnishEduskunta,for an analysis of the costs and benefits of the Bi-annual Reportsand IPEX.3. Priorities for Climate and Energy policies 2020 – guest speaker: Ms ConnieHEDEGAARD, Commissioner for Climate ActionMs Connie HEDEGAARD, Commissioner for Climate Action, informed participants of twomajor international events taking place on 30 January – the informal summit of Heads ofstates and governments in Brussels and the presentation of the United Nations GlobalSustainability Panel report. She said that climate change was impacting more and more peopleand that climate action should create a more sustainable, more energy- and resource-efficientfuture. She noted that the growing world population would have to be supported bysubstantial growth in economic terms to tackle growing demand for food production, waterand energy.Ms HEDEGAARD linked discussions on the economic situation with the climate,environment and resource crises. She said that the EU should stop thinking in silos and seeksolutions to all of these challenges in a more holistic manner. She noted that Europe was farfrom reaching targets, especially in energy efficiency, and said she believed that addressingthis made economic sense in the long term. She pointed out that the completion of the 20-20-20 targets (20% reduction of CO2emission to 2020, 20% growth in the use of renewableenergy sources and 20% increase in energy efficiency) could create many new jobs. TheCommissioner added that the world must move to a much more sustainable pathway and thisrequired greater investment and attention from both the public and private sectors. Shedescribed that, as money was scarce, the EU needed to create more added value out of eacheuro spent. According to Commissioner HEDEGAARD, at least 20% of the EU budgetshould be dedicated to fighting climate-related issues. Effort should be invested into reachingtargets which applied to several fields, such as the expansion and renewal of the EU energyinfrastructure through the proposed “Connecting Europe Facility”, and creating moreintelligent development policy.The Commissioner underlined that the EU could gain a lot of strategic credit from combiningsuccess in the field of climate action linked with other policies to boost the Union'scompetitiveness. She underscored that it was necessary for politicians to understand the needsof citizens in order to have their support for climate action.During the ensuing debate, 16 speakers took the floor. Several speakers agreed that climateaction, energy policy and economic policy were inter-related. Ms Tineke STRIK, DutchEerste Kamer,praised the European Commission and the Danish Presidency for theirendeavours to link economic policy to environmental policy. Ms HEDEGAARD appealed topoliticians to focus not only on obvious short term challenges but also to engage with thelonger term climate issues before “others get the economic benefits before us”.

A number of speakers supported actions to encourage growth such as the “Connecting EuropeFacility” and the creation of an internal energy market. Members also admitted that variousEuropean policies should be adapted to produce a more sustainable model of growth.Responding to a question about the current state of play on the discussion on border carbontax from Mr Pierre LEQUILLER, FrenchAssemblée nationale,CommissionerHEDEGAARD described this type of tax as a tool to be kept in the toolbox as long as therecontinued to be progress in international negotiations.Mr Miguel Ángel MARTĺNEZ MARTĺNEZ, European Parliament, along with a number ofnational parliamentarians, praised Ms HEDEGAARD for the role she had played in the UNClimate Conference in Durban at the end of 2011, where the EU had spoken with one voiceand won allies and friends. Many interventions stressed the need for an international climateagreement to be reached and Ms HEDEGAARD agreed, also pointing out that internationalbusiness was also very interested to see such an agreement.A number of members emphasised the need for greater mainstreaming of climate action in EUpolicy and better integration with development and trade policy. Many participants agreedwith Ms HEDEGAARD that there needed to be more efficient use of energy. Whenquestioned about binding targets for energy efficiency the Commissioner said that MemberStates did not, at this time, support their use. She wanted to see more progress and askednational Parliaments to help encourage this. If the voluntary route had not produced results intwo years time, binding targets would be proposed by the Commission. Ms THORS asked forsubsidiarity to be respected in all proposals for achieving greater energy efficiency. Lord JohnROPER, UKHouse of Lords,raised the question of adaptation and innovation, and was toldthat the White Paper would be published in the first quarter of 2013 and it would aim tospread best practice at all levels.In response to many that raised questions on the use of renewable energy sources, MsHEDEGAARD said that the Global Sustainability Panel hoped to deliver agreed targets in thisarea. Mr Edmund WITTBRODT, PolishSenat,asked how the use of nuclear power wasviewed by the Commission. Ms HEDEGAARD replied that energy mix was entirely for eachMember State to decide upon but that all had agreed the low carbon roadmap.The Commissioner concluded by saying that the EU must remain competitive and would behelped in this by setting targets. There needed to be a fundamental change in the structure ofEU economies to link economic and environmental policies as it was unacceptable that fossilfuels were currently being subsidised seven times more than renewable energy sources.

4. The sovereign debt crisis, European Economic Governance and democraticaccountability - guest speaker: Mr Maroš ŠEFČOVIČ, Commissioner for Inter-Institutional Relations and AdministrationMs KJER HANSEN opened the discussion by noting that the draft Treaty on Stability,Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union foresees theestablishment of a forum for interparliamentary cooperation in the area of budgetary policies.In this context, she stated that each individual national Parliament should be more involved ina dialogue with the European Commission on closer economic cooperation and the EuropeanSemester, proposing that the Commissioners could be invited to appear before theCommittees of the national Parliaments and written questions could be addressed by the

national Parliaments to the Commission, following a similar practice in the EuropeanParliament.Vice-President ŠEFČOVIČ opened his speech saying that he thought it was vital to acttogether and that the Danish Presidency, at this time of unprecedented concern about thefuture of the euro, took decisive and effective action in order to combat the economic andfinancial crisis. It was inconceivable that the single currency would fail, however, systemicshortcomings revealed by the crisis meant that the euro governance system had to beimproved.The Vice-President listed actions undertaken by the EU to ensure survival of the Economicand Monetary Union, such as the adoption of the European Economic Recovery Plan, therelease of an emergency loan facility for Greece and the creation of the European FinancialStability Facility and the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism. According to MrŠEFČOVIČ, the fundamental lesson of the crisis was that of interdependence and he calledfor greater integration between national economic and budgetary policies and a morecollective approach to European economic governance.The Vice-President noted that the crisis showed the necessity to act decisively in three keyareas: the financial sector, economic growth and public finances. Action included: thecreation of a new supervisory structure; ensuring both a rapid recovery and sustainable long-term development across the EU (through the Europe 2020 Strategy, the new EuropeanSemester and the Commission‟s Annual Growth Survey); and the so-called „six pack‟ oflegislation. Mr ŠEFČOVIČ underlined that the key role of the „six pack‟ was “to give the EUa much stronger framework for preventing the economic mistakes”. In addition to the „sixpack‟, the Commission also proposed a „two pack‟ designed to further strengthen economicgovernance in the euro area. The Vice-President said that „two pack‟ “would enable theCouncil and the Commission to examine national draft budgets and take a position beforethey are adopted by national Parliaments”. However, the Vice-President also made it clearthat national budgets would continue to be agreed and adopted by national Parliaments.Then, Mr. ŠEFČOVIČ referred to the issue of democratic oversight over European economicgovernance, which should not be left to national governments alone. In his opinion, suchcooperation had to be complemented by a more effective dialogue between the Commissionand national Parliaments. Moreover, he stressed that in the new Europe‟s economicgovernance framework the budgetary authority of national Parliaments had to be fullyrespected and the role of national Parliaments and the European Parliament enhanced.Speaking on the so-called „fiscal compact‟ agreed by the leaders of 26 Member States at theEuropean Summit of 8-9 December 2011, the Vice-President expressed regret that thecommunity method had not been chosen and that the European Council had to resort to theuse of an intergovernmental treaty though he broadly welcomed the content of the agreement.Mr ŠEFČOVIČ expressed his hope that agreement would be reached quickly and thatprovisions would eventually be incorporated within the overall EU legal framework. Hehighlighted the fact that further steps were needed and underlined the following EU policypriorities: growth-friendly fiscal consolidation; tackling unemployment, and in particular thechallenge of youth employment; and promoting competitiveness, in particular for SMEs. Heemphasised the benefits of the implementation of proposed reforms in the area of the SingleMarket, saying that it would add around 3% to the GDP level by 2020. He regretted that the

European Patent was blocked in the Council because three Member States could not agree onthe seat.In conclusion, the Vice-President said that public faith in the national and Europeaninstitutions would not improve “if we put narrow self-interest above the greater Europeangood”. He reiterated that the crisis revealed a considerable degree of interdependence betweenthe EU Member States and stressed that actions undertaken in order to respond to this crisiswould only be successful “if we continue to work together”.During the debate, 20 speakers took the floor. Several members focused their contributions onArticle 13 of the draft Treaty1regarding the role of national Parliaments and the EuropeanParliament, including Mr Ludĕk SEFZIG, CzechSenát,and Mr Simon SUTOUR, FrenchSénat,who underlined the importance of COSAC as an appropriate forum for discussion andparliamentary oversight in relation to the Treaty provisions. However, Mr EnricoFARINONE, ItalianCamera dei Deputati,supported the view that the organisation of a forumrelating to economic cooperation should be determined together by the national Parliamentsand the European Parliament in the framework of the EU Speakers' Conference. Stressingnational Parliaments' sovereign right to adopt their own national budget, some nationalParliaments' members criticised the wording of Article 13. They underlined the need to allownational Parliaments to specify themselves the relevant committees to participate in theconference that would discuss budgetary policies and other issues covered by this Treaty. MsGabriele MOLITOR, GermanBundestag,quoted the letter of Mr Krichbaum2advocating theCOSAC model, and stated, inter alia, that “the size of delegations ensures a balance betweennational Parliaments and the European Parliament and reflects the political composition of thenational Parliaments”. The German position was supported by a number of other membersduring the debate. Mr LEQUILLER said that the latest version of Article 13 was balanced andwell drafted and he called for the Commissioner to support it. A number of speakers said thatthe Treaty agreement and the monitoring of its implementation needed to be in line with theinstitutional framework and asked for it to be incorporated in the EU Treaties.Responding to comments, Mr ŠEFČOVIČ explained that the Treaty was about greater fiscaldiscipline and improvement of the rules, which were necessary bearing in mind that 24 out of27 Member States were in excessive deficit procedures. Referring to the cooperation underArticle 13 of the draft Treaty, the Vice-President noted that it was necessary to agree upondetails of such cooperation. He agreed that COSAC was an appropriate forum to discusssensitive issues like these. He also said that national Parliaments ought to refer to theirgovernments in order to ensure the exercise of their right of democratic scrutiny over budget.He admitted that the Treaty had its limits as it was an intergovernmental agreement, bindingonly to its contracting parties. Commissioner ŠEFČOVIČ clarified that the wording of Article13, as amended in the most recent version of the draft Treaty, enshrined the right of nationalParliaments and the European Parliament to determine their representatives and the relevantcommittees participating in the conference. Moreover, he underlined that the sovereignty ofeach national Parliament in adopting the national budget remained untouched, explaining thatthe Commission and the Council were to give an opinion on the sustainability of nationalbudgets assuming collective responsibility. Regarding the incorporation of the Treaty in EUlaw, he stated that the goal was to operate within EU law and to incorporate the Treaty in EU