What changed between the draft committee report and the plenary report

Change 19

Added:EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Added:Parliamentary diplomacy is gradually being recognised, amidst an increasingly complex and polarized world, as an efficient foreign policy tool to interact at political level with different actors in third countries, namely parliamentarians, but also governments, civil society and international organisations. The European Parliament, besides its scrutiny role over the work of the EU executive, is a leading international example of the growing reality of parliamentary diplomacy in complementing and shaping foreign policy, yet it has still many challenges to better perform and deliver.

Added:This report, which is divided in four chapters, provides an assessment of the existing tools and bodies the European Parliament has at its disposal in order to influence EU external action; and it advances a set of proposals to enhance the coordination between the relevant EU institutions. It highlights the importance of the Parliament’s role in advancing human rights and democracy as essential elements of the EU’s external agenda, notably through its debates, resolutions and multi-level, formal and informal engagement with external actors. Despite Parliament’s growing role in the field of EU foreign policy, it has yet to be fully recognised as an integral player within the “Team Europe” approach. For this reason, the report proposes among others the creation of an inter-institutional pilot programme to be launched in a selected number of third countries, where Parliament’s tools are fully integrated with that of the EEAS, Commission and the Member States in relation to these countries.

Added:From a Parliament internal perspective, the report underscores the need for a greater coordination, proposing to foster synergies among Parliament’s multiple missions abroad to reinforce consistency in the messaging and external engagement. Likewise, the report calls for a strengthened synchronisation with the Commission in supporting parliamentary democracy worldwide.

Added:The European Parliament’s multi-level diplomatic activity should be seen as an opportunity for the EU institutions since it has the unique capacity, for example, to establish dialogue with different actors when the EU executive branch are politically limited or to be vocal on sensitive yet essential issues of human rights and democracy.

Added:Moreover, and in order for the European Parliament to fully deploy its potential as an international diplomatic actor, it is crucial to finalise the update of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 20 November 2002 between the European Parliament and the Council. The same goes for the Parliament’s scrutiny mandate, where in order to enhance the level of accountability and transparency of the EEAS and the Commission’s external services, it is necessary to update the 2010 Declaration on Political Accountability.