Inter-parliamentary institution

An inter-parliamentary institution (also known as parliamentary assembly) is an organization of more than one national legislatures (parliament, assembly, council and other types).

Most of the inter-parliamentary institutions are part of an intergovernmental organization. Such branches of intergovernmental organizations are typically established in order to provide for representation of citizens, rather than governments who are represented in other bodies within the organization. Most of the inter-parliamentary institutions have an assembly comprising members of the national legislatures (whose members are directly elected in most cases).

Most of the inter-parliamentary institutions do not hold legislative power and have a consulting or informal cooperation-stimulating role.^[1] When the intergovernmental organization chooses to operate through a hybrid system of not only intergovernmentalism, but also supranationalism an organization-level legislature is established (or a predecessor inter-parliamentary institution is granted legislative power) in the form of international parliament. Members of international parliaments could be assigned in the same way as members of inter-parliamentary institutions or in cases of more advanced supranationalism they could be directly elected.

List of inter-parliamentary institutions

See also: International parliament

Since 1949, more than 40 parliamentary assemblies have been brought into being.^[2]

Inter-parliamentary institutions and international parliaments

Name	Sessions	Direct election	Legislative power	Related organization and notes
Inter-Parliamentary Union	1889 –	no	no	none
ASEAN Inter Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA)	1977 –	no	no	ASEAN
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)	1949 –	no	no	CoE
European Parliament^[note 1]	1952 –	1979	1970	EU
Nordic Council	1953 –	no	no	none
Benelux Parliament	1955 –	no	no	Benelux Economic Union
Assembly of the Western European Union	1955–2011	no	no	WEU that dissolved and was effectively succeeded by the EU.
NATO Parliamentary Assembly	1955 –	no	no	NATO
Latin American Parliament	1964 –	no	no	none ^[note 2]
African Parliamentary Union	1976 –	no	no	none
Andean Parliament	1979 –	no	no	CAN
British Irish Parliamentary Assembly	1990 –	no	no	none ^[note 3]
Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy	1994 –	no	no
Central American Parliament	1991 –	no	no	SICA
Baltic Assembly	1991 –	no	no	none
Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe	1992 –	no	no	OSCE
Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States	1992 –	no	no	CIS
Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States	1999 –	no	no	OIC
Asian Parliamentary Assembly	1999 –	no	no	none ^[note 4]
ACP–EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly	2000 –	no	no	none ^[note 5]
East African Legislative Assembly	2001 –	no	no	EAC
Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the Eurasian Economic Community	2002 –	no	no	EurAsEC
Arab Parliament	2004 –	no	no	AL
Pan African Parliament	2004 –	no ^[note 6]	no ^[note 6]	AU
Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly	2004 - 2010^[note 7]	no	no	none ^[note 8]
Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM)	2005 -	no	no	none
Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly	2006 –	no	no	none ^[note 9]
Mercosur Parliament	2007 –	2014 ^[note 10]	no	Mercosur
Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic-speaking Countries	2008 –	no	no	Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States
Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of the Mediterranean (PA-UfM)^[note 11]	2010 -	no	no	Union of the Mediterranean
Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly	2019 –	no	no	France–Germany relations
Assembly of Caribbean Community Parliamentarians		no		CARICOM
Inter-Parliamentary Committee of the West African Economic and Monetary Union		no		UEMOA
Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States		no		ECOWAS
Parliamentary Assembly of French-speaking countries		no	no	OdLF
Euronest Parliamentary Assembly	proposed	no	no	none ^[note 12]
South American Parliament	proposed			UNASUR
United Nations Parliamentary Assembly	proposed			UN
Parliamentary assembly of the World Trade Organization	proposed			WTO

1. The initially consultative European Parliamentary Assembly of ECSC, EEC and Euratom subsequently was renamed, gained legislative powers and became directly elected.
2. Multiple regional organizations in Latin America such as the Rio Group, Latin American Economic System and Latin American Integration Association have similar membership.
3. Multiple regional organizations in the British Isles have similar membership.
4. The Asian Cooperation Dialogue continental organization has similar membership.
5. Parliamentary Assembly established by the Cotonou Agreement between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States.
6. There are proposals to transform the Pan African Parliament into a directly elected international parliament with legislative powers.
7. Absorbed by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of the Mediterranean.
8. Related to the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership initiative of the EU's European Neighborhood Policy.
9. Established by the parliaments of the European Union, Mercosur, Andean Community, Central American Integration System, Mexico, Chile and the Latin American Parliament.
10. The Mercosur Parliament is expected to transform into a directly elected international parliament in 2014.
11. Absorbing the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly
12. Related to the Eastern Partnership initiative of the EU's European Neighborhood Policy.

• Commonwealth Parliamentary Association

See also

• Parliamentary assembly
• List of national legislatures

References and external links

1. There are cases of national assemblies also lacking legislative power such as the Consultative Assemblies of Oman and Qatar.
2. . Archived from the original on 2007-12-11. Retrieved 2010-09-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

• Article by Steve Charnovitz on Transparliamentary Assemblies in Global Governance