News

The session opened with a welcome speech by EP Vice-President and Chair of the Parliament's High-level group on Gender Equality and Diversity, Dimitrios Papadimoulis, who emphasised the EP's efforts to ensure a safe environment for everyone in the House. It was followed by introductory remarks by Director-General for Parliamentary Democracy Partnerships Sanna Lepola and Director-General for Personnel Kristian Knudsen among others, before presentations of national Parliament representatives.

Ms Lepola drew the participants' attention to the worrying trend of female candidates withdrawing from elections due to online and physical threats, violence and intimidation as also confirmed by the Inter Parliamentary Union. She then referred to a possible joint initiative for the creation of a "tool‑kit" destined to female candidates.

Kristian Knudsen highlighted Parliament's zero-tolerance policy on harassment and mentioned harassment as an area where parliaments can learn from each other. Mr Knudsen also referred to a tendency of a disproportionate number of harassment cases against women, which might indicate double standards when it comes to expectations of managers in terms of gender. The percentage of women managers is steadily increasing (43.4% of Heads of Unit and 50.8% of Directors are women), but there are still big differences on the horizontal level.

This Inter-parliamentary Seminar was divided into two workshops. The first one focused on inspiring projects from the Spanish Congreso de los Diputados, the Irish Houses of the Oireachtas, the House of Representatives of Cyprus and the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Unit of the European Parliament. The second one, entitled "Looking towards the future, learning from one another" was introduced by a word from the upcoming Spanish Presidency.

This exchange provided a good forum for exchange of information and best practices on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion work done at EU and national levels. The meeting was also a forum for deepening the dialogue between the national Parliaments and the European Parliament, by facilitating the exchange of ideas on how to build a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

The EP's Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT) in cooperation with the Legislative Dialogue Unit of the Directorate for Relations with national Parliaments will organize an Interparliamentary Committee Meeting (ICM) on "The role of national parliaments in overseeing the spending of EU funds and the NextGeneration EU plan".

Exercising parliamentary budgetary oversight is of paramount importance in ensuring that public money is spent economically, efficiently and effectively and that potential misuse or fraud is prevented or detected, and eventually prosecuted. For the oversight of funds based on the multiannual financial framework, both national parliaments and the European Parliament play a role but when it comes to the Next Generation EU funds, the role of national parliaments is even more crucial.

Given the complexity of exercising parliamentary control functions, CONT would like to invite all national parliaments to participate in an exchange of views to discuss common experiences, share best practices, foster mutual learning, and raise awareness of the common challenges related to the oversight of EU spending, including funds allocated under the Next Generation EU plan.

The European Parliament's Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL), together with the Legislative Dialogue Unit of the Directorate for Relations with national Parliaments, will hold an Interparliamentary Committee Meeting (ICM) to discuss the implementation of the European Child Guarantee, two years after the adoption of the Council Recommendation in June 2021.

The purpose of the meeting was to exchange views with Members from National Parliaments on the realities and experiences of Member States in working towards achieving the transport objectives of the Fit for 55 package.

The Swedish Riksdag hosted the LXIX COSAC Plenary Meeting within the framework of the Swedish Presidency of the Council. The delegation of the European Parliament was headed by Mr Othmar Karas, First Vice-President responsible for relations with national Parliaments and COSAC and Mr Salvatore De Meo as Chairman of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs. The other members of the delegation were Mr Andrius Kubilius, Mrs Evin Incir, Mr Georgios Kyrtsos and Mr Pär Holmgren.

On 3 May 2022 Parliament adopted a proposal for a Council Regulation on the election of the members of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage, repealing Council Decision (76/787/ECSC, EEC, Euratom) and the Act concerning the election of the members of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage annexed to that Decision (2020/2220(INL)). Several Parliaments have expressed their views on this proposal.

Therefore, the European Parliament Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO), in cooperation with the Legislative Dialogue Unit of the Directorate for Relations with national Parliaments, invited Members of national Parliaments of the EU Member States to attend an Interparliamentary Committee Meeting (ICM) to exchange views with national Parliaments on the 'Reform of the European Electoral System'.

This meeting took place on Wednesday, 26 April 2023 from 15.30 to 18.30 at the European Parliament in Brussels and Members of national Parliaments could also participate remotely.