On 1 July Belgium assumed the presidency of the EU, taking over from Spain. For six months, the main task of the country which holds the presidency is to organise and manage the work of the Council of the European Union where the member states are represented.
The Spanish Presidency coincided with the beginning of a new phase for the EU, with a renewed Parliament and Commission and a new treaty in effect since 1 December. With this outlook, Spain, Belgium and Hungary have drawn up a work programme for the 18-month period (January 2010 to July 2011) during which they will hold the Presidency in succession, according to the new regulations which apply in Europe.
It will be the first ‘trio’ of presidencies to be formalised and perform its functions in accordance with the Treaty of Lisbon. The aim of this new procedure is to provide the work and initiatives of the EU with more continuity.

Cooperation with the EU Institutions

National parliaments have an important role to play in bringing the European Union closer to citizens. Members of national parliaments, being close to citizens, can help to establish links between citizens and the EU Institutions by giving them a voice in decision being made at European level which affect them in their daily lives.By facilitating citizens’ input and participation in the EU policy-process, national parliaments can also promote a more democratic and transparent approach to the development of EU policy. The Houses of the Oireachtas and the Joint Committee on European Affairs are using the opportunities for cooperation with the EU Institutions to contribute their views on EU policies and programmes.

Margot Wallström, Vice-President of the European Commission with responsibility for relations with national parliaments, and José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission

Cooperation between National Parliaments and the European Commission
The European Commission has given high priority to strengthening its relations with national parliaments with the overall goal of increasing shared ownership of the European project by connecting with people and their elected representatives. In 2004 the President of the Commission appointed Vice-President Margot Wallström, as the first Commission Vice-President with specific responsibility for relations with national parliaments. Vice-President Wallström has expressed her commitment to further developing cooperation with national parliaments in order to better involve citizens in the EU policy process.

Under the theme a greater voice for parliaments is a greater voice to Europe’s citizens the Commission has set itself three key objectives in this regard:

Mutual service – a continuous and open dialogue;
Concrete networking; and
Connecting with people and their elected representatives.

In aiming to involve national parliaments more directly in the development of EU policy the Commission began a new initiative of forwarding all draft EU legislative proposals and consultation documents directly to national parliaments upon publication. The Commission forwards these documents to parliaments at the same time as to the European Parliament and the Council.

In undertaking the direct transmission of documents to national parliaments the Commission invited them to provide their comments so as to improve the process of policy formulation. The European Council welcomed this initiative and called on the Commission to duly consider comments by national parliaments – in particular with regard to the subsidiarity and proportionality principles.

This creates a meaningful opportunity for stepping up partnership and dialogue between the Commission and national parliaments in relation to EU policy formulation. The Joint Committee on European Affairs and the Joint Committee on European Scrutiny is using this opportunity to contribute their views on EU policy formaulation at a very early stage in the process by sending contributions to the Commission on EU proposals. Click to read contributions

Cooperation between National Parliaments and the European Parliament
The objective of cooperation between national parliaments and the European Parliament is to strengthen the parliamentary dimension of the EU and thus contribute to enhancing the democratic legitimacy and transparency of EU policy-making. While respecting their separate but complementary roles in the European Union, national parliaments and the European Parliament cooperate to achieve this common objective through regular meetings and by sharing information and exchanging perspectives on EU legislative proposals and policies.

The European Parliament, after the elections of 2004, created a new Directorate for Relations with National Parliaments. The Directorate is responsible for the coordination of activities between the European Parliament and national parliaments. The activities of the Directorate are carried out under the authority of the President of the European Parliament, Mr. Hans-Gert Poettering, by two Vice-Presidents of the Parliament.

Cooperation between the Houses of the Oireachtas and the European Parliament takes place within the framework of:

Conference of Speakers of European Union Parliaments;
COSAC – the conference of European affairs committees of the national parliaments as well as representatives from the European Parliament;
Joint Parliamentary Meetings - meetings on broad political topics organised and chaired jointly by the national parliament of the country holding the EU Presidency and the European Parliament;
Joint Committee Meetings - meetings on specific political topics organised and chaired jointly by the relevant sectoral committee of the national parliament of the country holding the EU Presidency and the European Parliament;
Participation of MEPs at meetings of the Joint Committee on European Affairs;
Sharing and exchanging EU information through the IPEX Inter-parliamentary EU Information Exchange website.