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Speech of His Excellency Bernard Accoyer

President of the National Assembly of FranceOn the occasion of the 9th Meeting of the Speakers of theLower Houses of the G8September 10, 2010CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

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Evaluating the Activities of International Parliamentary Assemblies andInterparliamentary RelationsSpeech by Bernard Accoyer at the G8 meeting in Ottawa

Dear Speakers of the Lower Houses,As I am the first to give a speech, on behalf of all my colleagues, I would like to begin by thanking the Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada, the Honourable Peter Milliken, for welcoming us here today.I would also like to thank him for agreeing to add, at my suggestion, the topic of evaluating the activities of international parliamentary assemblies andinterparliamentary relations to the agenda for the G8 parliamentary meeting. He also proposed that I be the one to introduce the discussion on this topic.

“Nothing that affects the relations between peoples can be prepared in the commotionof a deliberative assembly.”

This statement was made in a judgment in 1902. It makesclear the idea that Parliaments are inherently incompatible with international relations.Strangely enough, what gave this judgment credence at the time was that it waswritten by a proponent of parliamentary rights, Eugène Pierre, Secretary-General of the French Chamber of Deputies and author of

Traité de droit politique, électoral et parlementaire

, which was used as a reference for many years.Today, who would dare to make such a statement? But the idea persists that, indiplomatic matters, Parliament is a greater source of confusion and indiscretion than of useful initiatives. In the face of these extreme criticisms, I would like to defendParliament’s role as an actor in international relations, alongside the executive. Howcan it be otherwise when new actors such as NGOs, businesses and media networks,with neither the legitimacy nor the representativeness of Parliaments, are appearingand being recognized on the international scene?The executive no longer has the monopoly on relations, contact and dialogue withforeign countries. Yet all social, economic, security and environmental issues have aninternational component. In this age of rapid globalization, there are fewer and fewer strictly domestic affairs. Parliamentarians cannot fulfill their mandate if they are notconcerned with what is going on beyond their country’s borders.

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In the nebulous world of international relations today, our meeting here bears witnessto the fact that interparliamentary relations is one area that has developed a great dealover the last few years. I would like to talk to you more in depth about this area and itsmultilateral and bilateral functions.The financial and economic crisis reinforced the need for international co-operation.Multilateralism revealed itself to be invaluable as both a tool and a framework for action. The international parliamentary assemblies, of which our parliaments aremembers, are forums for assessment, discussions about ideas and experiences, anddialogue. They give parliamentarians an opportunity to reflect on issues on aninternational level.There are many such assemblies. Perhaps too many.Some of these international assemblies were created during the Cold War. To mentiononly those of which France is a member, we have the Council of Europe ParliamentaryAssembly, established in 1949; the Parliamentary Assembly of the Western EuropeanUnion (WEU), established in 1954; and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly,established in 1955. The precursor of all these assemblies is the Inter-ParliamentaryUnion, created in 1889. It has the distinction of being one of the few assemblies to beindependent of another intergovernmental organization, and it is the only one to beuniversal in nature. Some assemblies that have been created more recently focus onhuman rights issues and the rule of law. As we are in Canada today, I will mention theAPF, the

Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie

, which was created in 1967, aswell as the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, established in 1991. As for the Europeanand Mediterranean countries, we have not only the Euro-Mediterranean ParliamentaryAssembly, created in 2004 and including representatives from all EU countries andthose bordering the Mediterranean Sea, but also the new Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, created in 2006.This constant increase in the number of international assemblies, with the last addition being the most striking example, raises the question of streamlining their jurisdictionand coordination.Above all, these assemblies are political bodies that react to international events andvote on resolutions or make recommendations to the governments of the member states. However, their number raises issues of coordination and efficiency.