Interparliamentary EU Information Exchange

IPEX, the InterParliamentary EU information eXchange, is a platform for the exchange of information between and among national Parliaments and the European Parliaments concerning issues related to the European Union, especially in light of the provisions of the Treaty of Lisbon. The role of the national parliaments is explicitly laid down in the Protocol on the role of national Parliaments in the European Union and in the Protocol on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality.

History and Role

IPEX came about as the result of a recommendation made by the Conference of the Speakers of the European Union Parliaments in Rome in 2000. In accordance with the Guidelines for interparliamentary cooperation, agreed in The Hague in 2004, the official launch of the website took place in June 2006 during EU Speakers Conference in Copenhagen.

With the aim to support the Speakers Conference, the Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union (COSAC), the meetings of the specialized committees of the national Parliaments and of the European Parliament, the interparliamentary meetings and the liaison offices of the national parliaments in Brussels, IPEX is one of the major pillars of interparliamentary communication on European affairs.

IPEX is intended to enable European Union parliaments to cooperate more closely and coordinate their approaches to European affairs, whilst also seeking to make interparliamentary cooperation on EU matters accessible to European citizens. In this context, IPEX offers multilingual navigation and publishes fundamental texts and opinions of the national parliaments in English, French and other EU languages.

According to the IPEX Guidelines, IPEX is supervised by the Board. The Board is appointed on a yearly basis by the Secretaries General of the national Parliaments and the European Parliament on behalf of their Speakers.

IPEX is managed by the Central Support, the permanent IPEX information officer and a network of national IPEX Correspondents. It can receive contributions from all national Parliaments of the Member States of the European Union, the national parliaments of the candidate countries and from the European Parliament. In order to promote interparliamentary cooperation, IPEX is open to COSAC and the ECPRD.

Functionalities

IPEX offers the following features:

• Overview of the state of affairs in the debate within the national parliaments and the European Parliament with regard to proposals for European legislation coming from the European institutions, especially from the European Commission
• Exchange of information on legislative proposals between the national parliaments and the European Parliament, with special regard to the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality
• Exchange of information about consultation documents coming from the European Commission as a part of the “Informal Political Dialogue” (formerly known as the “Barroso Initiative”)
• Calendar of interparliamentary cooperation
• Links to national Parliaments and to the European Parliament as well as to other websites of interparliamentary cooperation in the framework of the EU, offering, for example, information about institutional procedures in EU affairs

The tools available for this exchange of information are a Database, Forums and a News section.

IPEX also hosts the EU Speakers Conference website.

See also

• National parliaments of the European Union, retrieved 2011-08-29
• European Commission, Relations with the European Parliament, the European Ombudsman, the European Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions and the National Parliaments, retrieved 2011-08-29
• European Parliament, Relations with National Parliaments, retrieved 2011-08-29

References

"Treaty of Lisbon: A more democratic and transparent Europe". European Union website, retrieved 2011-08-29

Treaty of Lisbon: Protocol on the Role of National Parliaments in the European Union, retrieved 2011-08-29

Treaty of Lisbon: Protocol on the Application of the Principles of Subsidiarity and Proportionality, retrieved 2011-08-29

External links

• IPEX - official homepage
• Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union COSAC - official homepage
• The European Centre for Parliamentary Research and Documentation ECPRD - official homepage