EU-US Parliamentary relations
European Parliament in Washington DC
The European Parliament had been considering ways to be in close contact with the US Congress since the beginning of the 1990's. Parliament voted on several occasions to assign staff to Washington to work in a representative office..
This idea was supported also in a report adopted by Parliament in March 2009. As a follow-up to this request, the Secretary-General of the European Parliament decided to open an EP Liaison Office with the US Congress in January 2010.
The Liaison Office was officially inaugurated by the then President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, on 29 April 2010.
This office is the only office of the European Parliament outside the EU. It is in regular contact with US lawmakers, and it is building a transatlantic network of legislators and staffers who work on issues that require legislative and political cooperation.
EU-US parliamentary relations
The origins of interparliamentary relations between the European Parliament and the United States Congress date back to 1972 when a US Congress delegation visited the European Parliament for the first time. This interparliamentary relationship is, indeed, the longest and most intensive one in the history of the European Parliament.
Parliament and Congress delegations meet nowadays twice a year.
The delegation with the EU is one of only three official delegations of the US Congress, alongside those with Canada and Mexico.
At the 50th interparliamentary meeting on 15-16 January 1999 in Strasbourg, both delegations decided to launch the Transatlantic Legislators' Dialogue (TLD), the formal response of the EP and the US Congress to the call in the New Transatlantic Agenda for enhanced parliamentary ties.
