- The Inter-Parliamentary Conference for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Common Security and Defence Policy provides a framework for the exchange of information and best practices in the area of CFSP and CSDP, to enable national parliaments and the European Parliament to be fully informed when carrying out their respective roles in this policy area. The Conference replaced the Conference of Foreign Affairs Committee Chairpersons (COFACC) and the Conference of Defence Affairs Committee Chairpersons (CODACC).
- Establishment of the Inter-Parliamentary Conference for the CFSP and CSDP arose from the need to develop, after the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, on 1 December 2009, and the cessation, in June 2011, of the activities of the European Assembly for Security and Defence, an appropriate interparliamentary forum dealing with common foreign, security and defence policy. The Conference was established by a decision of the EU Speakers’ Conference (EUSC) meeting in Brussels, in April 2011. The final agreement on Conference's composition and formula was reached during the EUSC in Warsaw in April 2012. Rules of Procedure were adopted, on the basis of detailed guidelines of the EUSC, at the Conference first meeting in Cyprus on 9-10 September 2012 and amended in Rome on 5-7 November 2014. During the meeting in Rome IPC CFSP/CSDP adopted also a document entitled "Best Practices", developing provisions of the Rules of Procedure for the purpose of future proceedings of the conference.
- The Inter-Parliamentary Conference is composed of delegations of the national parliaments of the EU Members States (six members from each parliament; in case of a national parliament consisting of two chambers, the number of members of its delegations is allocated according to their internal agreement) and the European Parliament (16 Members). Moreover national parliaments of an EU candidate country and each of the European member country of NATO can be represented by a delegation of four observers each.
The High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union is invited to the meetings. - The Inter-Parliamentary Conference convenes once every six months in the country of the Presidency parliament. It is presided over by the Presidency Parliament, in close cooperation with the European Parliament. The secretariat is provided by the Presidency parliament, in cooperation with the European Parliament and the previous and next Presidency parliaments. The Conference may adopt by consensus non-binding conclusions on matters related to the agenda of its meeting. These documents are published in working languages, that is English and French, on the Conference website hosted on IPEX and their translations into Polish – on the OIDE website.
See:
- Meetings and documents
- Debate on the arrangements for the interparliamentary scrutiny of the CFSP/CSDP (PL - updated until 21.04.2012)
Updated: 30.08.2023