InterParliamentary EU information eXchange

Interparliamentary EU information eXchange ( IPEX ) is a platform for the exchange of information among national parliaments of the Member States and candidate countries of the European Union and between national parliaments and the European Parliament on EU issues, especially in light of the provisions of the Treaty of Lisbon.

The rights and powers of the national parliaments in EU affairs are laid down in Protocol 1 on the role of national parliaments in the European Union and the Protocol No 2 on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality.

Origin and Tasks

IPEX was created on the basis of a recommendation of the Conference of Presidents of National Parliaments in the European Union ( EU PPK ) from September 2000. According to the adopted in 2004 ( and revised in 2008 ) Guidelines for the inter-parliamentary cooperation, the official launch of the website in June 2006 during the EU - PPK in Copenhagen.

Objective of IPEX is the national parliaments and the European Parliament - to support rapid and up through the publication of decisions and information in EU affairs - in particular its technical committees. The publications in IPEX continue to serve the preparation and the mutual exchange within the Parliament Conference of Presidents and the Conference of European Affairs Committees of Parliaments of the European Union (COSAC ) and in the joint meetings of the technical committees of the national parliaments and the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assemblies and other inter-parliamentary conferences. Also, the liaison offices of the national parliaments in Brussels are involved with in the exchange.

In this way, IPEX helps the parliaments in the European Union in closer cooperation and better coordination of their action in European affairs and makes the same inter-parliamentary relations for the citizens of Europe to life. So IPEX offers a multilingual navigation through the web pages and published basic texts and opinions of the national parliaments in English, French and German, and other languages ​​of the European Union.

Committees and membership

According to the guidelines, the IPEX IPEX Board shall, in accordance with the requirements of Speakers of Parliament decisions on the development of IPEX. There shall be appointed annually by the Secretaries-General of the national parliaments and the European Parliament on behalf of their respective presidents. Since 2010, the German Bundestag has held the chairmanship of the committee, which is composed at present of representatives of the national parliaments of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Slovenia and the European Parliament. It shall be chaired by the Director at the German Bundestag.

Members of IPEX are all national parliaments of EU Member States, the national parliaments of the candidate countries and the European Parliament. In all national parliaments there IPEX correspondents who form a network and, among others, have the task to publish opinions and decisions of their parliaments and other posts on EU affairs on the IPEX website. In this way, an overview of the activities of national parliaments in the European legislation and the debate on European affairs.

Range of information and accessibility

The IPEX website, which is designed as a public internet portal offers,

  • An overview of the state of discussion of proposals for European legislation, whose authors are the European Commission and other European institutions, national parliaments and the European Parliament;
  • An exchange of information between national parliaments and the European Parliament on legislative proposals of the European Union, in particular the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality;
  • Exchange of information on consultation documents of the European Commission (green and white papers and communications ) as part of its political dialogue with national parliaments;
  • A calendar of inter-parliamentary cooperation;
  • Links to national parliaments and the European Parliament as well as other sites of inter-parliamentary cooperation in the framework of the European Union, which contain information on national and international institutional procedures in EU affairs.

For the information exchange are in IPEX a database password protected forums and a news section available. In addition, can be found in IPEX also the website of the European Parliament President Conference. IPEX is linked with all major European databases.

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