LEXICON European Centre for Parliamentary Research and Documentation (ECPRD)

The European Centre for Parliamentary Research and Documentation was established in 1977 on the initiative of the Conference of Speakers of European Parliamentary Assemblies (as from 2004: European Conference of Presidents of Parliament). It is an international network of parliamentary departments for research and documentation, the objective of which is to facilitate cooperation between European parliamentary staff responsible for the collection and dissemination of information and for legislative work.
The ECPRD members are the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and parliamentary chambers where the President is a member of the European Conference of Presidents of Parliament. A parliament possessing special guest or observer status with the PACE may participate in the different activities of the ECPRD (but may not vote). Each parliament/national parliamentary chamber appoints its correspondent who coordinates the staff contribution to the activities of the Centre.
ECPRD activities cover mainly three areas:
- Seminars – at the request of parliaments and with ECPRD’s consent, seminars are organised on subjects of common interest, including those related to parliamentary administration (e.g. on parliamentary library services, codes of conduct, parliamentary archives, legislative staff, the role of European affairs committees, the issue of bicamerality, etc.).
- Questionnaires – the member parliaments may submit questions through the ECPRD to one or more assemblies on a specific topic. Answers are then available in the ECPRD database. For issues of special importance, the ECPRD may publish a comparative analysis of the situation in the different states as well as comparative tables.
- The ECPRD publications include:
  - regular publications: Directory – a list of names, roles and contact details of the staff liaising with the centre in each member parliament, Activity Report – an annual report on the activities of the ECPRD,
  - ad hoc publications: publications accompanying thematic seminars prepared in collaboration with the member states (concerning e.g. the transparency of the legislative process, the role of legislative staff, supranational and international assemblies) and those prepared as part of a series dedicated to parliamentary practice (concerning e.g. election systems, parliamentary immunities, European affairs committees).
  Most of the ECPRD publications are available after logging in on its website.
The activities of the ECPRD are financed partly from the European Parliament’s budget, and partly by the PACE. The member parliaments finance the activities of the ECPRD indirectly, e.g. by organising meetings.