Maltese Parliamentary Delegation bound for Vienna Conference

Maltese Parliamentary Delegation bound for Vienna Conference

A Parliamentary delegation led by the Hon Joe Borg, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and including the Hon Dolores Cristina, and the Hon George Vella, will be attending the XIXth COSAC - Conference of European Affairs Committees of the National Parliaments of the European Union, the European Parliament and the Parliaments of the Applicant States.

This conference, which will be taking place in Vienna between the 23rd and 24th November 1998, will be opened by Mr Peter Schieder, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Austrian Nationalrat and Head of the Austrian COSAC Delegation. The delegates will be given a welcome address by Dr Heinz Fischer, Speaker of the Austrian Nationalrat.

The topics on the agenda are:

• "Enlargement" - introduced by Dr Wolfgang Schussel, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Austria;
• "Employment" - introduced by Mag. Viktor Klima, Federal Chancellor of the Republic of Austria;
• "Treaty of Amsterdam: Status quo of the ratification of the individual Member States" - introduced by Dr Michael Spindelegger, Deputy Chairman of the Committee of Foreign Affairs of the Austrian Nationalrat;
• "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.

20.11.98