Croatia was invited to attend the meeting for the first time as an EU candidate country and will be represented by Parliament Speaker Vladimir Seks. Representatives of Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro and countries covered by the Stabilisation and Association Process will join the parliament heads of the 25 EU member-countries and four candidate countries in a discussion on relations between the EU and western Balkan countries on Saturday, as part of the strengthening of the EU's global role.
Hungarian Parliament Speaker Katalin Szili said in her opening remarks that following recommendations and guidelines from the meeting in The Hague in 2004, which set good foundations for further development of instruments for inter-parliamentary cooperation, a network of people in charge of inter-parliamentary contacts had been set up to facilitate the exchange of information. Also adopted was a special language regime to be used at conferences, which is based on the equality of all languages and members, and the right to use a native tongue. Szili underlined the importance of exchanging information with the European Commission and the Commission's readiness to continue dialogue.
Addressing the conference, the Vice-President of the European Commission, Margot Wallstorm, said that the new EU Constitution offered new possibilities for a greater role of national parliaments and European citizens, based on the principles of equality, democracy, participation, transparency and dialogue.
"We believe that the future of Europe depends on good and close cooperation among national parliaments of member countries and European institutions," Wallstorm said and added that cooperation needed to be realised as soon and as efficient as possible.
European Parliament President Josep Borrell Fontelles said that the Agreement on the EU Constitution gave an impetus to parliamentarianism and showed that the role of parliaments needed to be strengthened.
The meeting was also addressed by Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, and the Hungarian president will host a lunch for the participants in the meeting.