Policy Paper 16

Interparliamentary Cooperation in the European Union: time for a new start?

In this policy-oriented paper, M. Larhant enumerates the various forms taken by interparliamentary activities in the European Union and outlines reforms to achieve better coordination and efficiency.Only in French.

Based on the results of a survey conducted among national parliaments’ European affairs committees as well as among permanent parliament representatives, his recommendations point at the risk of creating a new permanent interparliamentary body. However, he advocates a stronger cooperation between parliamentary sectorial committees through the creation of committee networks that would be run by the European Parliament’s direction in charge of relation with national parliaments and the COSAC secretariat. Likewise, he underlines the need for the Conference of the Speakers to focus its attention on the planning and the coordination of the interparliamentary meetings, and argues for the creation of a permanent secretariat. Only in French.