During the Council Presidency, the Bundesrat and the German Bundestag hosted 12 interparliamentary conferences that brought together parliamentarians from the EU Member States and the European Parliament. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the conferences were held entirely as video conferences for the first time in the EU’s history.

The interparliamentary conferences form part of the Parliamentary Dimension of the Presidency of the Council of the EU. In 2000, the parliaments from the Member States of the European Union agreed to add a Parliamentary Dimension to the EU Council Presidency’s intergovernmental tier. The aim is to strengthen the role of parliaments in the EU and, above all, to foster interparliamentary cooperation. In this context, the parliaments of the country that holds the Presidency host conferences and events to which they invite parliamentarians from the other EU Member States.

Portal of the Bundesrat building with the EU flag

© Bundesrat | Dirk Deckbar

During the German Presidency of the Council of the EU, the Bundesrat and the German Bundestag assumed this role jointly. This shared responsibility derives from Article 23 of the Basic Law, which assigns an important role to both the Bundesrat and the Bundestag concerning parliamentary involvement in determining Germany’s policies on European Union questions. Moreover, in all EU Member States with two parliamentary chambers or senates, both assemblies are represented in the Parliamentary Dimension.

Outcome of the Conferences

The COVID-19 pandemic and its economic, social and societal consequences was a key focus for all the conferences organised during the German Council Presidency. However other major challenges and future responsibilities facing the EU, such as the Green Deal, migration and asylum or the Recovery Plan were also discussed. The President of the Bundesrat and the President of the German Bundestag have summarised the results in a concluding document.

During the Council Presidency, the Bundesrat and the Bundestag were the German Co-chairs of the Conference of the Speakers from the National Parliaments of the EU Member States and the European Parliament (EU-SC), the Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union (COSAC) and the Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group on Europol (JPSG). Bundesrat Members also participated in the other conferences that were organised.

Reports, interviews and recordings of the video conferences are available for download for all conferences.

Interparliamentary Conferences during the German Council Presidency

Trio Presidency with Portugal and Slovenia

On 1st January 2021, Portugal takes on the Council Presidency for six months, followed by Slovenia in the second half of the year.

Since 1st July 2020, Germany has formed what is known as a Trio Presidency together with Portugal and Slovenia. A Trio Presidency entails close cooperation between three Member States that together hold the Presidency over an eighteen-month period. They formulate long-term goals and develop a joint programme, which forms the basis for each of the three countries involved to devise its own more detailed six-month programme. The Trio Presidency was introduced in 2009 with the Treaty of Lisbon.

At the start of the Presidency, the Speakers of Parliaments from the three countries involved, Germany, Portugal and Slovenia, signed a Trio Declaration with a Work Programme for the Parliamentary Dimension.