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LEXICON Interparliamentary cooperation of the Weimar Triangle countries

  1. The Polish-German-French cooperation of the Weimar Traingle countries was initiated in 1991 by Germany and France. On 29 August 1991, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs: Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Roland Dumas, Krzysztof Skubiszewski adopted a common statement known as the Weimar Declaration. The ten-point document emphasised i.a. the role of the European institutions (EC, WEU, Council of Europe) and NATO in building a united Europe, and in the seventh point Germany and France expressed their support for the aspirations of Poland and other new democracies to join the European Communities.
  2. The interparliamentary cooperation of the Weimar Triangle has taken two basic forms – meetings of the European Affairs Committees and Bureaus of lower houses.
    The cooperation between parliamentary committees of Poland, Germany and France under the Weimar Triangle started on the initiative of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the German Bundestag in November 1992 in Bonn. The first trilateral meeting of the European Affairs Committees was held on the invitation of the Bundestag in March 2000 when it was agreed that the committees would cooperate closely in matters of the EU enlargement towards East. At the next meeting, in January 2004, the deputies discussed issues related to the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (failing to agree the parliaments’ positions on the issue). In April 2008 in Warsaw the formula of the further cooperation was agreed as well as topics of the meetings and a calendar of work.
  3. The first meeting of the lower chambers’ Bureaus was held in May 2010 in Essen. The joint statement adopted at the meeting stressed that the purpose of cooperation was to provide a forum for permanent and intensive exchange of opinions on the development of the European Union and parliaments’ contribution to that process, with special focus on the Union’s attitude to its citizens and relations with its neighbours. Statement emphasised that the Bureaus should seek to ensure that specialised parliamentary committees exchange views on strategically important proposals of the European Commission and prepare a common position for EU bodies. Close cooperation between the representatives of the three parliaments in Brussels was also agreed.
  4. No documents are adopted at meetings of the European Affairs Committees, which are of a working nature. The subject area of parliamentary meetings of the Weimar Triangle countries basically reflects the topics dealt with at trilateral meetings at the governmental level.

Updated: 11.08.2020