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The European Parliament attaches great importance to maintaining close links with the Member States’ national parliaments through regular meetings. This has been particularly the case ever since the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, often referred to as "the Treaty of Parliaments".
The Conference of Presidents is responsible for relations with the Member States’ national parliaments. In December 2009, the Conference of Presidents decided on the establishment of a Steering group on relations with national parliaments which is due to reflect on the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty concerning national parliaments and to promote internal coordination of EP activities in this field, as well as to propose a regular programme of activities.
The European Parliament keeps the Member States’ national parliaments regularly informed of its activities.
The European Parliament committees regularly invite members of the national parliaments to their meetings to discuss, inter alia, new Commission legislative proposals.
Together with the Parliaments of the Member States holding the EU Council Presidency, the European Parliament organizes each semester a Joint Parliamentary Meeting to debate major political issues on the EU agenda.
The Treaty of Lisbon is the first EU Treaty with a specific article on the role of national Parliaments. In fact, it contains 14 references to national Parliaments. These references grant significant rights to national Parliaments, including the right to express objections to draft legislation not complying with the principle of subsidiarity.
COSAC involves National Parliaments' committees dealing with European affairs as well as representatives from the European Parliament. An explicit reference to COSAC is made in the Protocol (No1) on the role of national Parliaments in the European Union annexed to the Treaty of Lisbon.
COSAC meets twice a year. It consists of six representatives of each of the Member States’ national parliaments and six Members of the European Parliament, including the Vice-Presidents responsible for relations with the national parliaments.
It has changed considerably since it was created in 1989 by the Presidents of the Parliaments of the EU Member States. From a simple forum for exchange of information, it has become a recognised body representing the national parliaments at EU level.COSAC may, inter alia, submit any contribution it deems appropriate for the attention of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission.
ECPRD stands for a network of 70 parliamentary assemblies out of which 40 are from EU countries. The network has its origins in a joint initiative of the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Both institutions appoint the two ECPRD Co-Directors. The European Parliament runs the secretariat and hosts the website.
The aims of the ECPRD are mainly:
The main ECPRD activities are comparative requests and seminars for which a modern website has been implemented. The private section of the website can be accessed only by ECPRD member parliaments.
In order to facilitate the flow of information, national Parliaments - in cooperation with the European Parliament - have created their own database and website – www.ipex.eu
IPEX contains parliamentary scrutiny documents and information concerning the European Union. Parliamentary documents, which are uploaded individually by each national Parliament, are the main building blocks of the IPEX database. These documents are organised according to the specific EU document which they relate to.
Since November 2009 the IPEX domain belongs to the European Parliament. In 2010 it underwent important changes to make it more user-friendly.