Speaker of the Slovak Parliament, Pavol Paska, believes the role of national parliaments is more important than the role of the European Parliament at the moment. That is why the results of the Bratislava Conference of Speakers of European Union (EU) Parliaments, beginning on Friday, will interest all political leaders in the EU, Mr. Paska told SITA in an interview on Thursday.
According to Mr. Paska, a so-called Bratislava mechanism could enter history as the outcome of the event, clearly defining which member state and under what conditions takes over the presidency of this conference. Another contribution of Slovakia to this conference should be, says Mr. Paska, emphasizing the momentum of European Union enlargement, linked to the invitation of the Ukrainian Chairman of the Supreme Council (Parliament) Olexandr Moroz to present the vision of Ukraine and its capability to integrate Ukraine in the European space. "The most important topic of the conference will be the European Constitutional Treaty, institutionalization of Europe and with that related absorption capacity of Europe -- enlargement yes or no, stop it or restrict it," Mr. Paska informed and continued that all EU political leaders are interested in the outcome of discussions of speakers of national parliaments, whose role is currently more important than the role of the EU parliament.
"I am going to present our national stance that Slovakia will always support European enlargement as well as the European Constitution, and that today we still believe that the process brought by German presidency should be completed," Mr. Paska stated and added that it would be only fair to have opinions of all EU members on the draft European Constitution. "Unfortunately, this process was frozen for a long time and today it is clear that the German ambition will not be fulfilled, and we could already now define several levels of approaches to the text -- from an optimistic one, that Slovakia supports and that means acceptability of the Rome agreement, to the other side of the so-called euro-skeptics that are defining themselves and we can name them," Mr. Paska said. He added that it is a pity that the process will still take more time, since Europe should become a strong economic and social superpower in order to succeed between global competition. For this, Pavol Paska believes, it is necessary to put in order internal relations in the EU.
The Conference of EU Parliaments' Speakers could influence this process. "Its importance is that the position of national parliaments is getting into a clearly executive level and it is the national parliaments themselves that need to guard the agreed boarders of what is national and what is European and what can be a matter of the EU decision-making," he said. Current "institutional chaos" in the EU, says Mr. Paska, is not a reason to be skeptical, rather the opposite.
Croatia will also be represented at the conference. Mr. Paska remarked that it would be irresponsible towards countries that have moved ahead considerably regarding the entry process and have met all requirements to leave them waiting in front of the EU door. "Interrupting EU enlargement means creating more space for political radicalism outside the EU. On the other hand, enlargement and improvement of cooperation are means of democratization and implementation of universal values," Mr. Paska concluded.
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