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Date
Subject
Reference

22 december 2011
Response to your proposal as by your letter of 15 November 2011
149681.01u

Dear Ms Kopacz, dear Mr Borusewicz,
On behalf of the Senate and the House of Representatives of the States-General of the Netherlands, we would like to express our gratitude for your efforts to reach a compromise on the establishment of an Interparliamentary Conference on the Common Foreign and Security Policy,
including the Common Security and Defence Policy. We would like to thank you for the constructive proposal that was circulated in your letter of 15 Nove mber 2011. We share with you
the opinion that convening this conference is a matter of urgency, in order to strengthen parliamentary oversight of the activities of the EU and its member states within this domain.
We are pleased to be able to inform you of the position of the States-General of the Netherlands
regarding your compromise proposal. Both Houses share the view that, as a matter of principle,
the relative size of the delegations from national parliaments and that of the European Parliament should reflect the intergovernme ntal nature of the area of European Security and Defence.
In the interest of effective cooperation between national parliaments and the European Parliament, to which the States-General attach great importance and which they believe to be among
the key objectives of the Lisbon Treaty, the Senate and the House of Representatives will, how ever, fully support your proposal.
We would like to take this opportunity to further clarify our position regarding the proposed
composition of the delegations on two points. Firstly, we understand the provision of four me mbers and two alternate members for national parliaments to mean that delegations will consist
of six participating members. All of these me mbers are permitted to request the floor, yet only
four have voting rights. Secondly, we understand that the delegation of the European Parliament will consist of sixteen members, with no alternate members. Lastly, we presume that Parliaments/Chambers are free to determine the composition of their delegation from confe rence to
conference.
On a final note, we would like to underline that the conclusions of the Conference of Speakers of
Parliaments of the European Union of 4 and 5 April in Brussels were adopted by consensus. As

Datum

x december 2011

Page

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far as the States-General are concerned, a possible reopening of the debate on the other aspects of the organisation of the Interparliamentary Conference would not be conducive to its
expeditious establishment.
We a re confident that your efforts to finalise a compromise on the establishment of the Inte rparliamentary Conference will bear fruit and that we can reach full agreement on this issue during our meeting in Warsaw in April of 2012.

Yours sincerely,

Mr. G.J. de Graaf

Gerdi A. Verbeet

President of the Dutch Senate

President of the House of Representatives

of the States General

of the States General