European Conference of Presidents of Parliaments May 30-31, 2006 Tallinn, Estonia

Strasbourg, 13 January 2006

DRAFT

WORKING GROUP ON THE REVISION OF THE ECPRD STATUTES

EXPLANATORY COMMENTS

on the revised draft Statutes

1. On 18 – 19 May 2004 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe hosted the European Conference of Presidents of Parliaments. At the special meeting organised during this conference, Secretaries General of Parliaments discussed and endorsed the 2002 – 2004 Activity Report of the ECPRD.

2. During the meeting it was agreed to convene a small working group of Secretaries General in order to discuss and, if need be, to prepare possible changes to the current Statute of the ECPRD. Mr Bruno Haller and Mr Julian Priestley – Secretaries General of, respectively, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament were asked to propose the composition and the mandate of the group. This was also the procedure used in 1995/1996 when the present Statute was agreed.

3. The following composition of the Working Group has been agreed by both Secretaries General:

- Secretary General of the Bundestag (Germany);

- Secretary General of the Camera dei Deputati (Italy);

- Secretary General of the Storting (Norway);

- Secretary General of the Duma (Russian Federation);

- Secretary General of the Drzavni Zbor (Slovenia);

- Two Co-Directors of the ECPRD.

4. In his letter addressed to members of the Working Group, Mr Haller has specified the mandate of the group as follows:

“The task of the group would be to generally review, after ten years in force, the current Statute of the ECPRD, particularly in view of the recent EU enlargement and the almost accomplished enlargement of the Council of Europe. Three questions stand out. First, whether the ECPRD should be given additional tasks. Second, what role the ECPRD should have among the different structures for co-operation between national parliaments and in relations with international assemblies. Third, whether the ECPRD should allow regional parliaments to join the organisation. Possible proposals of the group should be ready for submission to the next meeting of Secretaries General in spring 2006, on the occasion of the next Conference of Presidents of Parliaments.”

5. In order to have the discussion of the Working Group better structured, Mr Haller suggested that the Group concentrate on the following issues:

- ECPRD objectives (possible revision of article 1 of the Statute);

- ECPRD working methods (to have more working groups, to appoint co-ordinators responsible for specific subjects, to define more precisely the role and position of correspondents and deputy correspondents, etc.);

- ECPRD membership (regional parliaments?);

- ECPRD vis-à-vis external world (the ECPRD role among already existing structures for parliamentary co-operation).

6. Following the envisaged revision, the ECPRD Statute should remain a document which:

- reflects expectations addressed by member parliaments to the ECPRD;

- presents an opened and far reaching vision of what the ECPRD should be;

- will not become a straightjacket undermining its efficient and smooth functioning.

7. At the first meeting of the Working Group on 26 October 2004, it was agreed that there was no need for a general revision of the ECPRD’s Statutes but only for their adaptation and for possible stylistic and linguistic improvements. Furthermore, the group agreed that it would be improper for the ECPRD to admit regional parliaments as partners of the ECPRD at the same level as national parliaments. The group subsequently met on 20 May 2005 and on 13 January 2006.

8. The procedure envisaged for the adoption of the new Statutes was as follows:

- following the agreement by the Statutory Working Group, the modified draft Statutes would be circulated to the ECPRD correspondents for possible comments before the Correspondents’ Conference in October 2005 in Bucharest;

- amendments proposed by the Conference of Correspondents would be discussed at the final meeting of the Statutory Working Group at the beginning of 2006;

- the final draft would be circulated to the Secretaries General of parliaments as soon as possible after the final meeting of the Group. They would be invited to submit amendments well in advance of the Tallinn meeting to simplify discussions there;

- the final adoption of the revised Statutes was foreseen for the next meeting of the Secretaries General of Parliament in Tallinn on 31 May 2006.

ECPRD Statutes – comments on proposals for modification

Preamble to the Statutes

As from 2004, the Conference of Speakers of European Parliamentary Assemblies had become the European Conference of Presidents of Parliament. The text of the Preamble should be modified accordingly.

Article 1

There are several changes to this article dealing with the ECPRD’s aims.

Firstly, the Centre, in addition to serving as a forum to exchange information, ideas and experience, should also promote good practices among the administrations of parliaments in Europe.

Secondly, the Centre should promote cooperation in all fields of parliamentary administration. The explicit mention of the word ‘administration’ was important, as the ECPRD’s practice over the last few years had shown that - in addition to research, information and documentation - the Centre also dealt with the functioning of parliamentary administration.

Thirdly, the word ‘legislation’ should be added as a separate item to the ECPRD’s tasks, so as not to be hidden under the term ‘administration’.

Article 1.2 aims to make more explicit the duty of the ECPRD to promote the use of information and communication technology in the exchange of information.

Article 1.3 underlines that the ECPRD should closely co-operate with other existing networks dealing with the exchange of information, in order to avoid unnecessary duplication.

Article 2

Formal changes were proposed, namely to use the correct name of the Assembly of WEU and to refer to the “European Conference of Presidents of Parliaments” (new title) rather than to the “Conference of Speakers of European Parliamentary Assemblies”.

Article 3

Minor stylistic and linguistic changes were proposed.

Article 4 (new)

A new article 4 had been added under the heading “The meeting of the Secretaries General”. This was meant to reflect the important role played by the Secretaries General in the definition of ECPRD tasks and in establishing priorities for its functioning. In fact, the meeting of the Secretaries General was the supreme body of the ECPRD and took the basic decisions. Therefore, it should be mentioned as one of the governing bodies of the ECPRD.

Article 5 (old 4)

The following new sentence had been added to paragraph 1: “Secretaries General may also appoint Deputy Correspondents”. This proposal reflects the real situation and allows the enlargement of the network of staff directly linked to the ECPRD in national parliaments. In addition, a deputy correspondent can assure the continuity of activities in the event that the correspondent is temporarily prevented from being active for the Centre. There are also linguistic changes in paragraph 2.

Article 6 (old 5)

In paragraph 1, for reasons of style, the word “contains” had been replaced by “includes”. The reference to Article 8 had also been added.

Furthermore it was proposed to make paragraph 2 of Article 5 more precise and adapt it to current practice by wording it as follows: “The report, together with the action programme, is then submitted for approval to the Secretaries General and subsequently to the European Conference of Presidents of Parliaments which is invited to take note of it”.

Article 7 (old 6)

The Working Group found it appropriate to enlarge the Executive Committee. This would be in acknowledgement of the enlargement of the Council of Europe and the EU since the adoption of the Centre’s Statutes in 1996. With the Committee being enlarged to include five correspondents, these would remain members during three years which is the current practice, but the procedure of possible re-election had been introduced.

The second sentence of Article 7.1 had been modified as follows: “The Committee will meet as often as necessary, at the request of at least two of its members or five correspondents.” Furthermore, it had been proposed to mention explicitly, in the second paragraph of Article 7, that for the elections of correspondents to the Executive Committee, due consideration would be paid to the need to maintain a geographical balance in the membership of the Executive Committee. In fact, this was current practice.

Furthermore, it was proposed, in view of the Executive Committee enlargement, to introduce the rule on the quorum and on voting methods.

Article 8 (old 7)

In practice, the two Secretaries of the ECPRD mentioned in Article 8 of the Statutes were already referred to as Co-Secretaries of the ECPRD. It had been proposed to adapt this provision accordingly.

The proposed modification of paragraph 3 of Article 7 to make Co-directors no longer ex officio correspondents for their assemblies would provide for greater flexibility and allow the Secretaries General of the European Parliament and of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to appoint other persons than the Co-Directors as correspondents for these Assemblies.

Article 9 (old 8)

It had been proposed to transfer the first sentence of the present paragraph 2 to paragraph 1, to add it to the first sentence and to reword it as follows: “and the organisation of seminars”. The wording of the paragraph 1 was reformulated in order to correspond to the text of Article 1. The Group also thought that it was important to add the task of sharing of knowledge of parliamentary ICT applications among the other ECPRD objectives.

Furthermore, it had been proposed to insert a new second sentence in paragraph 1 of Article 2 worded as follows: “The Executive Committee shall establish detailed guidelines for studies and comparative requests and for the organisation of ECPRD seminars.”

It had been proposed to leave the task of establishing guidelines to the Executive Committee, as this would provide for greater flexibility and as the Conference of Correspondents meets only once a year. However, following discussion, the wording: “with due consideration being paid to recommendations from the Conference of Correspondents” had been added.

It had also been proposed to include in paragraph 2 the new words “or initiate”.

Various proposals had been made to modify parts of Article 9 which dealt with the key issue of the Centre’s working methods, including working groups.

Co-Directors of the ECPRD proposed to replace the current formula of permanent working groups by providing in the Statutes for the Executive Committee a possibility to appoint coordinators in areas requiring a continuity of activity. The coordinators would be responsible for preparing events (seminars) in their respective fields and would assure the continuity of the work. The number of coordinators should not be pre-established, as it would depend of needs and requests. This approach would provide for a greater flexibility and better reflect the current situation, as “working groups” have so far never had formal memberships.

Following discussion, this proposal had been approved and paragraph 3 modified as follows: “When it considers that a given area requires a continuity of activity, the Conference of Correspondents may decide on the appointment of a Co-ordinator responsible for promoting close co-operation between the member chambers in that area. The Co-ordinator shall be appointed by the Executive Committee from among the competent staff of member chambers, for a renewable term of three years.”

Members of the Working Group noted that, while introducing the possibility of appointing coordinators and writing this into the Statutes, the creation of a limited number of ad hoc (temporary) working groups to deal with specific subjects should also be possible.

Such ad hoc working groups should be ‘project-oriented’, limited in time and scope, have clear terms of reference and a fixed composition. In principle, they should be composed of representatives of parliaments interested in a given project or subject matter.

Following extensive discussion, a new paragraph 4 to Article 9 of the Statutes had been added. It reads as follows: “On a proposal from the Executive Committee, and to meet specific terms of reference, the Conference of Correspondents may also decide to set up ad hoc working groups composed of staff of member chambers. The Executive Committee shall determine their composition and duration, which must not exceed three years.”

Article 10 (old 9)

It had been proposed to make the wording of paragraph 1 more precise, as regards the covering of cost to be borne by member chambers for their participation in the ECPRD.

Article 11 (old 10)

As other provisions of the Statutes always refer to “member chambers”, the words “member assemblies” in Article 11 should be replaced accordingly. Furthermore, it had been clearly specified what meeting of the Secretaries General was entitled to revise the ECPRD Statutes.