The President of the European Parliament, Ms Nicole Fontaine, called for the extension of MEPs' powers over justice and home affairs, insisting that parliament should not have "a less important role than the one it was accorded in the completion of the single market", Patrick Smyth reports.
In her address to the summit, she said the debate was an opportunity to restore public support for the idea of European integration by responding to the belief that the EU was incapable of addressing citizens' real concerns.
The leaders had a responsibility to ensure that the five-year deadline laid down by the Amsterdam Treaty for the full establishment of the common area of freedom, security and justice was inviolable. The credibility of the EU was at stake, she said, pointing to previous failures over issues like the 1998 Brussels agreement on family law, a matter of particular concern to the Irish MEP, Ms Mary Banotti, the parliament special representative on child separation cases.
Ms Fontaine said the failure by states individually to ratify the convention meant that "today thousands of children are caught in the trap of contradictory national laws when husbands and wives of different nationalities separate".