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Institute of Public Affairs and Friedrich Ebert Foundation jointly organised a conference:
European Parliament:
one year after the elections, one year before Polish presidency
7th June 2010
University Library in Warsaw, Poland
Conference report:
The purpose of the conference was to discuss the achievements of the European Parliament during the past year after the elections and challenges it will be facing in the nearest future. Moreover being one year before Poland's Presidency in the Council of the European Union, we discussed the issue of cooperation between the Presidency and the European Parliament.
During the conference dr. Agnieszka Łada, the Head of the European Programme and Analyst in the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), presented the newest publication of the Institute “Towards a European Demos? Polish Perpective on the 2009 European Parliamentary Elections” (Jacek Kucharczyk, Agnieszka Łada (eds.), Warsaw 2010).
The first panel discussion concerned the cooperation of the Polish government administration and the European Parliament (EP) during the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2011. The discussion was moderated by the president of the IPA – dr. Jacek Kucharczyk. Participants of the discussion: Joanna Skoczek, Director of the Department of Coordination of Poland’s Presidency in the EU Council, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Rafał Trzaskowski, Member of the European Parliament, both agreed that the Polish administration should closely cooperate with the European Parliament during the Presidency.
Joanna Skoczek emphasized that the awareness of the necessity of the cooperation with the EP is very strong. After the Lisbon Treaty caming into force, the EP has become stronger and the EU Council as well as the Presidency has to cooperate with it strongly. Skoczek also pointed out the need of cooperation between particular ministers and the corresponding EP commissions. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is doing its best to support other ministries in their preparations for this role. In ech ministry a person responsible for contacts with EP has already been assigned. As an example of the engagement of the Presidency with the EP, Skoczek referred to the Swedish Minister for European Affairs, who paid visit to the EP 34 times during a six-month-long Presidency.
Rafał Trzaskowski emphasized that the upcoming Presidencies will be crucial for clearly defining their role after the Lisbon Treaty. The Polish government has to prepare alternative scenarios for the Presidency depending on its definitively formed role. Trzaskowski thinks that although the experts and employees of the MFA appreciate the role of the European Parliament, it is not always the case by the representatives of other ministries. They can lack orientation as whom to contact or which meetings to attend. Through contacts with EP, that has an increasing role in European legislative process, some points can be negotiated, which we were not able to achieve in the Council. Rafał Trzaskowski assessed preparations for the Polish Presidency, which are very important because of the Presidency being a chance for building Polish reputation in the EU, positively.
Participants of the discussion agreed that parliamentary elections during the Presidency could have a negative impact on its outcomes. Joanna Skoczek emphasized that if the elections were to take place during the Presidency, the administration will do everything in their power to meet that challenge.
The second panel discussion, concerning the achievements of the European Parliament during the last year, was moderated by Konrad Niklewicz from “Gazeta Wyborcza”. He asked panelists, MEPs, Paweł Kowal and Czesław Siekierski to name the biggest achievements and failures of the EP from the European and Polish perspective during the last year. The biggest interest was raised by the moderator's remark that some of the MEPs concentrate too much on national politics rather than their work in Brussels and Strasbourg.
Paweł Kowal emphasized that the MEPs has to be present in the national politics, if they want to run for the next elections. He considers the role of the EP in the Lisbon Treaty to be overestimated, as it is currently incapable of fully using its competences, as it could have been observed during the Hearings of the Commissioners-designate, most notably Cathrine Ashton. As failures he also named the matter of the External Action Service and the EURONEST, which had been dominated by national interests.
Also Czesław Siekierski emphasized that the work of a MEP in the country is equally important as in Brussels and Strasbourg. He mentioned a number of cases on which he had been working during the past year and which are too technical and complicated for voters to form an opinion. That is why the visits and meetings in the region are so important. He also named a few failures of the Parliament, for instance the Copenhagen Conference and the first stage of the Eastern Partnership.
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