The emerging order of interparliamentary cooperation in the EU : functional specialization, the EU speakers conference, and the parliamentary dimension of the Council Presidency

Abstract

This Working Paper analyses three trends in interparliamentary cooperation in the European Union (EU). All of them pertain to the notable increase in the number of interparliamentary meetings in recent years. First, there is a growing tendency towards functional specialization, with the creation of three new permanent interparliamentary bodies for specific policy fields – foreign and security policy, economic governance, and (prospectively) Justice and Home Affairs. Second, the EU Speakers Conference has lately consolidated its constitutive role as the body that oversees the creation of other forms of interparliamentary cooperation within the EU and also supervises their ongoing functioning. Third, more and more interparliamentary meetings are held within the framework of the ‘Parliamentary Dimension’ of the rotating Council Presidency; this gives a role to the ‘Presidency Parliament’ which acts as agenda-setter, host and chair of a series of interparliamentary meetings during the six-month period. The argument of this Working Paper is that the collective effect of these three trends has been to rationalize interparliamentary meetings within the EU, making them significantly more ‘orderly’.