Our mission

The Directorate for Relations with National Parliaments advises the political bodies, Members and the secretariat of the European Parliament on their institutional cooperation, legislative dialogue and administrative cooperation with the EU national parliaments. It provides support for interparliamentary activities, contributes to the implementation of the Treaty provisions on interparliamentary cooperation in the EP and provides expertise throughout the legislative cycle, including on subsidiarity, proportionality and other EP political competences.

The Directorate for Relations with National Parliaments acts as a knowledge centre for information regarding national parliaments and provides information to Members and the EP administration on best practices within EU national parliaments. It represents the European Parliament in the administrative networks of interparliamentary cooperation. It manages relations with the officials that represent the national parliaments in Brussels and maintains close links with their administrations.

The activities of the European Parliament's Directorate for Relations with National Parliaments are conducted under the political leadership of EP President Roberta Metsola, and two Vice-Presidents, Esteban Gonzalez Pons and Katarina Barley. According to the EP's Rules of Procedure, the Conference of Presidents is the authority responsible for matters concerning relations with the national parliaments of EU Member States.

The Directorate for Relations with National Parliaments is managed by Jesús Gómez as Director. It forms part of the EP's Directorate-General for Parliamentary Democracy Partnerships, headed by Director-General Sanna Lepola. The Directorate consists of three units.

Institutional Cooperation Unit - Head of Unit: Andrea Laskava

The areas of responsibility of the Institutional Cooperation Unit include multilateral regulated cooperation with EU national parliaments via institutionalised high-level conferences and meetings, e.g. the Conference of Speakers of EU Parliaments (EUSC), the meetings of Secretaries-General of EU Parliaments (EUSG), and COSAC (Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs), Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and other high-level inter-parliamentary conferences. The Unit also supports, in cooperation with the Directorate-General for External Policies (DG EXPO), interparliamentary meetings in the field of EU external action and multilateral assemblies, namely CFSP/CSDP Interparliamentary Conference on Foreign affairs, Security and Defence and interparliamentary meetings at committee level (ICMs). ICU cooperates closely with the Constitutional Affairs Committee (AFCO) on matters related to national parliaments. ICU is also responsible for providing logistics and helpdesk services to the representatives of national parliaments based in Brussels.

Legislative Dialogue Unit - Head of Unit: Joeri Hamvas

The Legislative Dialogue Unit is responsible for the political and legislative dialogue with national parliaments in key areas and at the different phases of the legislative procedure. To this end, it plans, coordinates, and organises Interparliamentary Committee Meetings (ICMs), interparliamentary conferences (IPCs) and rapporteurs' dialogues on legislative files. Another main field of activity is the parliamentary scrutiny in the area of justice and home affairs and economic and social policies. To this end, the unit organises the EP Week on economic governance, the meetings of the Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group on Europol and the annual ICM on Eurojust. The third field of main activity concerns subsidiarity. The Unit ensures the monitoring of the subsidiarity check, and the follow-up with rapporteurs and committees of the implementation of Protocol No 2 on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. The Unit is also responsible for the CONNECT and CORCOM databases.

Networks Cooperation Unit - Head of Unit: Manuel Manrique Gil

The Networks Cooperation Unit supports cooperation and the exchange of knowledge at administrative level between the European Parliament and national parliaments, notably through the organisation and participation in staff networks and seminars. It manages the Presidency Parliament Support Programme (PPSP), which facilitates experience-sharing with the administration of the parliament that is due to hold the future presidency of the Council of the EU. NCU provides the Secretariat of the European Centre for Parliamentary Research and Documentation (ECPRD) network, together with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). The unit administers the EP participation in the Interparliamentary EU information exchange platform (IPEX). The NCU's tasks also involve capacity-building initiatives, organising professional development seminars and foster strategic partnerships with parliamentary administrations across Europe.