The acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, has presented the priorities of the Spanish Presidency at the first session of the Meeting Conference of Community and European Affairs Committees (COSAC), which was held in the Senate on 17 and 18 September.
This meeting is in preparation for the plenary session of the 70th COSAC, which will be held from 26 to 28 November in Madrid.
After the opening of the conference by the President of the Senate, Pedro Rollán, and the President of the Congress of the Deputies, Francina Armengol, various sessions were held, chaired by the MP Susana Sumelzo and the Senator José Ignacio Landaluce.
Besides de acting minister of Foreign Affairs, the first session was attended by the First Vice-President of the European Parliament, Othmar Karas. In the next session, the Chair of the Ukrainian Parliament’s Committee on the Integration of Ukraine into the EU, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadre, and the Chair of the Swedish Riksdag’s Committee on European Union Affairs, Hans Wallmark discussed about future of Ukraine in Europe.
During the last session, current issues of the European Union were the main theme. After each content block, a debate among the members of COSAC was held.
The President of the Spanish Senate pronounced the closing speech at the end of the meeting.
About COSAC
Since its creation in Madrid in 1989, COSAC (Conference of Community and European Affairs Committees) has brought together the European Affairs Committees of the national parliaments and the Constitutional Committee of the European Parliament in two meetings every six months: the COSAC Presidents’ Meeting and the Plenary Session.
The COSAC Presidents’ meeting will be the first meeting of the Spanish Presidency to be held in Madrid and will therefore be central to the Spanish Presidency’s calendar of interparliamentary meetings.