In his opening speech, Hellenic Parliament Speaker Vangelis Meirmarakis stressed that COSAC returns to the cradle of democracy for the fifth time, at a time when the European Union faces a democratic deficit. He said that the global economic crisis, unemployment mainly among young people and the citizens’ distrust of the decisions made in Brussels are among the problems troubling all the EU members. He stressed that the economic crisis is actually a challenge to find a solution to the problems and inconsistencies in the administration, which calls for more intensive cooperation between the national parliaments of the member states with the EU institutions i.e. more through control of issues relating to European policies.

The participants were also addressed by the Greek Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Evangelos Venizelos who presented the priorities of the Greek presidency of the EU Council. To the question why the enlargement policy for Western Balkan countries is not one of the priorities, he said that it is definitely one of the goals, highlighting the support for Serbia in the accession talks and continued normalisation process between Belgrade and Pristina which are part and parcel of the adopted framework for EU talks.

The participants jointly concluded that the economic crisis had caused many problems which in turn spread onto all other spheres of life thus threatening the democratic potential of the European Union, and that it was up to the politicians and institutions to ensure transparency and functionality of the system in line with the provisions of the Treaty of Lisbon.

The meeting also dealt with the 21st COSAC Activity Report, focusing on the political situation in Ukraine.

The meeting was attended by the parliamentary delegations of EU member states, as well as Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Iceland as EU candidate states, a delegation of the Parliament of Norway as a special guest, and representatives of European institutions.

The NARS delegation comprised National Assembly Deputy Speaker and European Integration Committee member Gordana Comic and European Integration Committee member Dragan Sormaz who had several bilateral meetings at the margins of the main event.