The Association Agreement between the EU and Mexico, signed in Brussels on 8 December 1997, provides for the creation of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), whose main task is to monitor the application of the agreement and to make proposals with a view to improving its operation. The committee comprises two delegations with an equal number of members from the European Parliament and from the Mexican Senate/Chamber of Deputies respectively. The Association Agreement, in addition to its commercial aspects, also includes sections on cooperation and political dialogue.
The committee, set up at the beginning of this legislative period, holds two meetings a year, alternately in Mexico and the EU. The Joint Parliamentary Committee's bureau also holds one or two meetings a year in order to programme the joint activities for the next semester, and define topics of common interest to be discussed at the next interparliamentary meeting.
At the Joint Parliamentary Committee's meetings, subjects falling within the Association Agreement and its three pillars - trade chapter, political dialogue and cooperation - are raised, and points of views are exchanged on the current political and economic situation in Mexico and the European Union. At each meeting, a Joint Declaration is adopted reflecting different positions of the JPC Members on a variety of issues and containing recommendations addressed to other association organs such as the Association Council and the Association Committee. The JPC also prepares and adopts Messages to the bilateral Summits, as was the case for the last EU-Mexico Summit which took place on 16 May 2010 in Madrid.
