Thursday, 2 February 2012
MP Seminar on the Challenges for the National Parliament in the EU Accession Process
MPs from various political groups participated in the IPA-TAP (Technical Assistance to Parliament seminar about the challenges for the National Parliament in the EU accession process.
The focus of this workshop was to provide the MPs with a general understanding about the key challenges and tasks for the national Parliament during the EU accession process. This workshop, held in Boris Trajkovski Hall, was especially aimed at the MPs who are members of the European Affairs Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee, the National Council for European Integration, and the Joint Parliamentary Committee (European Union-Republic of Macedonia).
Dr. Peter Sardi (Head of the Office for Foreign Relations – Hungarian National Assembly) and Mr. Ilmars Solims (Head of the Secretariat & Senior Advisor to the European Affairs Committee – Latvian Parliament) presented a short overview of the tasks for national Parliaments during the EU accession process as well case studies of the Hungarian and Latvian Parliament’s experiences during their path to EU membership.
The seminar included an exchange of views between the participating MPs and the presenters, especially regarding how the Hungarian and Latvian Parliaments handled the various tasks (constitutional tasks, transposition tasks, monitoring tasks over the Government’s EU-related activities, inter-parliamentary diplomacy tasks, and informational tasks with the general public).
The EU-funded IPA project “Technical Assistance to the Parliament” began its work a the Parliament in January 2011 and will continue until July 2012.
The project has three main components:
- Improving the technical support of the Parliamentary Working Bodies
- Improving the Parliament’s capacity to deliver analytical reports to the MPs on EU matters (working with the planned Parliamentary Institute
- Improving the access to and provision of information, for MPs and Parliament staff, particularly regarding the EU accession agenda and making information more accessible to the public.