The EU is a result of the long asymmetric political and economic integration process of the states of Western Europe. It was promoted and monitored by political elites and national executives while national parliaments played a secondary role in the designing of this process or in the modelling of the supra national institutions on which substantial parts of the legislative activity were to be transmitted. Parliaments of the applicant states have to adapt quickly to the their new roles. One of such parliaments is National Assembly of Slovenia which is confirming all negotiation positions, discussingall key documents and passing great number of the 'European' laws (164 until December 2001), besides ratifications of international treaties (290). One of the main steps in the process of its adaptation was made by passing of the new Rules of Procedure (April 2002) permitting much faster adoption of legislation needed for the harmonization of the Slovenian regulations and the Acquis. The National Assembly has early established its European Affairs Commission (1996), which is coordinating all activities connected with the accession of Slovenia and has developed a cooperative relationship with the EP through COSAC. Besides these highly formalized relations, a whole network of personal contacts among the Slovene MPS and MPs in other European parliaments and in EP has been established through the linksbetween particular political parties and their counterparts or main 'families' of political parties in the EP. National Assembly has also made substantial improvements in its organization, enlarging professional staff, establishing its own Research Department (1998). It is believed that the Slovenian National Assembly has been sufficiently effective in the process of accession. One of the main hindrances in this process was a persistence of thesimplistic attitudes towards the role of national parliament in general anda lack of understanding of real demands and new burdens individual parliamentarians will have to meet after Slovenia's entrance - the need for the increase of the number of Slovene MPs has been recognized only recently.
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