13 December 2006

European Parliament Working Group discusses UN Parliament proposal

On Wednesday the EU-UN Working Group of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament dealt with the issue of the establishment a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA). On the invitation of the group's chairman, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, MEP, the chairman of the Committee for a Democratic UN (KDUN) presented the proposal in Strasbourg. During the discussion, Miguel Angel Martínez, MEP and President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) from 1997-1999, and currently Honorary President of the Union, stressed that the IPU should be the starting point to create a UNPA. However, Martínez admitted that "certain change" at the IPU would be necessary. KDUN also promotes the option of a UNPA as additional institution. The European Parliament has repeatedly supported the establishment of a UNPA, last time in a resolution of June 2005.