Maltese Parliamentary Delegation to attend EU Conference in Berlin

A Parliamentary delegation led by the Hon Dolores Cristina MP, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, and including the Hon John Vella, MP, and the Hon George Vella, MP, will be attending the XXth COSAC - Conference of European Affairs Committees of the National Parliaments of the European Union, the European Parliament and the Parliaments of the Applicant States.

The conference which is to be held in Berlin between the 31st May and 2nd June 1999, will be opened by Dr Friedbert Pfliger, Member of the Bundestag and Chairman of the Committee on the Affairs of the European Union of the German Bundestag; and State Secretary Willi Stichele, Chairman of the Committee on European Union Questions of the Bundesrat.

The topics on the agenda are:

"Institutional reforms following the Amsterdam Treaty" introduced by Mr Elmar Brok, MEP, Representative of the European Parliament during the negotiations on the reform of the EU (Amsterdam Treaty);

Relations between the EU and third countries -

Common Foreign and Security Policy Trade relations between the EU and the USA, Latin America and the ASEAN states;

Review of COSAC rules of procedure/set-up of a working group/COSAC on the Internet;

"Report on the work of the German Presidency of the EU Council/progress on Agenda 2000 and the enlargement process" introduced by Mr Joschka Fischer, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany.

"Institutional reforms and future working procedure of COSAC: Possible improvement in the interaction between the European Paliament and the National Parliaments" introduced by Mrs Nicole Fontaine, Vice-President of the European Parliament;

"Institutional reforms with special regard to transparency and to a

Union closer to its citizens" introduced by Mr Marcelino Oreja Aguierre, Member of the European Commission; and

"The future working procedure of COSAC in the light of the Amsterdam Treaty" introduced by Mr Peter Schieder, Head of the Austrian COSAC Delegation.