Since 1981 there have been regular interparliamentary meetings (IPMs) between the European Parliament's Delegation for relations with Australia and New Zealand and its counterparts in the two countries.
The current basis for the EU-Australia relationship is the EU-Australia Partnership Framework that was adopted in Paris in October 2008 and the Joint Declaration on relations between Australia and the European Union adopted in 1997. The framework for the EU-New Zealand relationship is the EU-New Zealand Joint Declaration on Relations and Cooperation which was adopted in Lisbon in September 2007. The meetings of the delegation with their counterparts are the focal point for the interparliamentary element of the relationship between the European Union and Australia and New Zealand. There have been 33 EU - Australia and 17 EU - New Zealand Interparliamentary Meetings to date.
The regular agenda items in the parliamentary meetings cover areas such as trade; agriculture; energy; environment and climate change; development and economic cooperation; science and technology; the promotion of global and regional security in the Asia-Pacific region, countering terrorism, and human rights.
