Since 1949, more than 40 parliamentary assemblies have been brought into being.

I do not believe that the time is yet right for a full Parliamentary Assembly at global level.

A 108-member parliamentary assembly meets occasionally in Paris, where the union also has a small international staff and an institute for security studies.

The future will show whether it is right, by means of this new parliamentary assembly, to reduce the Commission' s powers regarding these issues.

My group therefore supports the proposal in this report to set up a parliamentary assembly of Mediterranean countries.

In this way, the parliamentary assembly actually would contribute to an increased efficiency of international action.

A global parliamentary assembly could be structured to give populous states greater influence.

The two French parliamentary assemblies were highly controlled and had limited powers.

To what extent has provision been made in the Commission's work programme for making progress with the parliamentary assembly?

Given that Parliament was previously a parliamentary assembly with no power, it retains a number of earlier procedures.