Press release, 27 January 2014
Session 2 of the Meeting of the Secretaries General of the European Union Parliaments was devoted to IPEX (Interparliamentary EU Information Exchange) related issues.
Following the presentation of the IPEX Annual Report by Dr Horst Risse, Secretary General of the German Bundestag, who has been the Chair of the IPEX Board for the last four years, the Secretaries General by consensus approved the composition of the IPEX Board and appointed a new Chair of the IPEX Board.
In line with this decision, during the Conference of Speakers of European Union Parliaments to be held in Vilnius on 68 April 2014, the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania will take over the duties of Chair of the IPEX Board from the German Bundestag for the period of the Italian Presidency of the Conference of Speakers of EU Parliaments in 20142015.
From the Conference of Speakers of European Union Parliaments to be held in spring 2014, the IPEX Board will consist of the following chambers of Parliaments: the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Italian Republic, the Chamber of Deputies of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (as the Presidency Trio); the National Council and the Federal Council of the Republic of Austria; the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Kingdom of Belgium; the Folketing of the Kingdom of Denmark; the Hellenic Parliament; the House of Lords of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; the Sejm and the Senate of the Republic of Poland; the National Assembly and the Senate of the French Republic; the Assembly of the Portuguese Republic; the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of Romania; the German Bundestag; and the European Parliament. COSAC, ECPRD, the European Commission and the Council will also participate in the meetings of the IPEX Board (According to the IPEX Guidelines, the IPEX Board consists of members representing the national Parliaments hosting the previous, current and upcoming Conference of the Speakers of the European Union Parliaments, other national Parliaments that wish to participate in it, and the European Parliament).
IPEX is intended to facilitate inter-parliamentary cooperation within the European Union by enabling national Parliaments to exchange by electronic means EU-related information and opinions about parliamentary scrutiny, including subsidiarity, and to administer the timetable of inter-parliamentary meetings. Apart from that, IPEX increases transparency and, for the first time ever, provides national Parliaments with an opportunity to publish their documents on a single website (www.ipex.eu) designed for all national Parliaments of the EU, parliaments of candidate countries and the European Parliament. Heads of parliamentary administrations are responsible for the operation of IPEX.
Jolanta Anskaitienė, Public Relations Unit, tel. +370 5 239 6508, e-mail: [email protected]
