Comments: Past, Present and Future of International Parliamentary Institutions

Abstract

First wave: 1889-1945. IPIs roots are closely linked with conflict resolution, peace and international security (Cofelice and Stavridis, 2014). Their origins, indeed, date back to the creation of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in 1889. It began as an association of parliamentarians, led by Sir William R. Cremer and the French parliamentarian Frederic Passy, whose goal was to promote the creation of a permanent institutional structure for the peaceful settlement of disputes. With two exceptions, the IPU remained the only functioning international parliament until 1945. One exception was the Nordic Interparliamentary Union, created in 1907 as a forum for co-operation between members of Scandinavian parliaments, which now takes place in the Nordic Council created in 1952. The other was the Empire Parliamentary Association, created in 1911 to connect parliaments from British dominions and selfgoverning colonies, and renamed, in 1948, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. Second wave: post-WWII and Cold War period. The proliferation of IPIs started after the Second World War and can be associated to the phenomenon of regional integration (old integration), that includes parliaments as part of a regional“internal”process and the need for its legitimisation and democratic dimension. In this phase, indeed, “the public demand for a better transparency of decision-making in international politics came to the forefront of political debates, especially in Europe”(Sabic 2008, p. 260).This was particularly evident in 1948, when The Hague Congress of the European Movement launched a campaign for unification of Europe, and paved the way for the establishment, the following year, of the Council of Europe, equipped with an Assembly that originally had only a consultative role. In spite of these initial limitations, the Consultative Assembly, which in 1974 was renamed Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), represents a milestone in the development of IPIs, since it was the first time that a parliamentary dimension was introduced in an international inter-governmental organisation. The Council of Europe’s structure also served as a model for the international organisations established during the Cold War period. Indeed, all key Western European organisations got an inter-parliamentary component during that period: in 1951, the Consultative Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community was created; the Western European Union introduced a parliamentary assembly as one of its main organs in 1954; in 1956, parliamentarians from NATO member states decided to form