Inter-parliamentary cooperation in the European Union: developments and impacts
Inter-parliamentary cooperation in the European Union: developments and impacts

Summary/Abstract: Although parliaments in the European Union gain more and more power, the role played by them is still limited. Inter-parliamentary cooperation becomes the hot issue under the background of the discussion on the EU’s democratic deficit. Especially following the debt crisis, the demand for enhancing the inter-parliamentary cooperation is rising. The inter-parliamentary cooperation has made great progress and presents some development trends and characteristics. In terms of the impacts, the inter-parliamentary cooperation in the European Union mainly fulfils the functions of information exchange, best practice learning and position coordinating among participants. It is also useful for the candidate countries to learn and understand EU affairs. The interparliamentary cooperation in the European Union is beneficial to address the democratic deficit problem, but its development still faces some limitations. In order to reinforce the democratic legitimacy of the European Union, strengthening the inter-parliamentary cooperation and the role of parliaments in the European Union is not only a long-term task but also the future development trend. At present, the role played by inter-parliamentary cooperation is mainly within the internal policy domains of the European Union, but in the future inter-parliamentary cooperation may exert its impacts on EU’s external relations, including EU-China relations.

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