The Conference of European Community Affairs Committees (Cosac) has met every six months since 1989. It consists of representatives of the relevant committees in the national parliaments and of members of the European Parliament.
With the entry into force of the Maastricht Treaty, the European Union acquired competence in areas which had traditionally been a national preserve, such as justice and home affairs. For this reason, the importance of exchanges between national parliaments and the European Parliament was underlined in a declaration on the role of national parliaments in the European Union. The national governments were also asked to ensure that their parliaments received Commission proposals in good time for possible examination. Providing national parliaments with more information would enable them to be more closely involved in the Community process and to exercise closer democratic control over it.
With the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam, a Protocol on the role of national parliaments will be annexed to the Treaty on European Union, stipulating the information that must be sent to national parliaments (White Papers, Green Papers, communications and proposals for legislation). National parliaments will be given a period of six weeks to discuss a legislative proposal between the time when the Commission makes it available to the European Parliament and the Council and the date on which it is placed on the Council's agenda.
COSAC will also have the power to address to the Union institutions any contribution which it deems appropriate and to examine any proposal for a legislative instrument relating to the establishment of an area of freedom, security and justice (which might have a bearing on the rights and freedoms of individuals).
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO, or the Atlantic Alliance) was founded in 1949 and has its headquarters in Brussels. It has 16 members: the EU Member States (with the exception of Austria, Finland, Ireland and Sweden), Canada, the United States, Iceland, Norway and Turkey.
The policy of the Union respects the obligations on certain Member States arising out of NATO membership and is compatible with the common security and defence policy agreed in NATO. Declaration No 30 annexed to the Treaty on European Union clarifies future relations between NATO and the WEU, which is the defence arm of the Union and the means of strengthening the European pillar of the Atlantic Alliance.
The aim of this principle is to ensure equality of treatment for individuals irrespective of nationality, sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation.
Article 6 of the Treaty establishing the European Community outlaws any discrimination on grounds of nationality. With the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam, a new Article 6a will be written into the Treaty in order to reinforce the guarantee of non-discrimination laid down in the Treaties and extend it to the other cases mentioned above.