PERSPECTIVE A Conference of Parliaments for Europe New Ways of Interparliamentary Cooperation AXEL SCHÄFER AND FABIAN SCHULZ April 2013 The various economic and budgetary policy governance instruments at European level have achieved a regula­tory density that a few years ago seemed barely imagi­nable. The crisis has brought painfully home to us how urgently we need stronger and more effective coopera­tion in these areas. At the same time, the question also arises of the democratic legitimation of the new coordi­nation mechanisms in which parliaments date have been participated only sporadically. Every parliamentary level thus sees itself confronted with its own tasks that must be solved independently. In the German Bundestag we are on the right track with a series of specific participa­tion laws and the most recent amendment of the Coop­eration Law(EUZBBG) 1 – a track that we must continue along, in particular with regard to the ability to cope with the new tasks in practice. We do not have room here to discuss the Bundesrat as»second chamber« and the cor­responding legislation. Participation rights and formal competences, however, are far from being everything when it comes to the role of parliaments in the European Union. More intensive cooperation on issues of»budgetary policies and other issues covered by this Treaty« is already provided for by Article 13 of the Fiscal Treaty. Following this there has been an intense discussion concerning how new facets can be added to parliamentarism in Europe through in­terparliamentary forms of cooperation. Before a detailed treatment of the composition, ways of working and organisation of an interparliamentary con­ference, however, we must focus on another question: what could such a body deliver and for what tasks is it entirely inappropriate? 1. Law on Cooperation between the German Federal Government and the German Bundestag on EU matters. What an Interparliamentary Conference Could Deliver As banal as it may sound at first hearing, a central added value in the first instance undoubtedly consists in the fact that a conference would provide an institutionalised plat­form that would simplify and strengthen the exchange of information and cooperation between. Even if every representative – whether in the European or a national parliament – were to stress the importance of appro­priate parliamentary involvement and democratic legiti­mation of cross-level European coordination processes, cooperation between representatives across borders, de­spite positive developments, certainly remains capable of improvement. Exchange, integration and coordination between MPs are thus the key tasks that such a conference could un­dertake. However, not as an end in itself: knowledge of the current state of the debate in other elected assem­blies, exchange of best practice with regard to parlia­mentary participation procedures, getting to know about different perspectives and, not least, possible agreement on common approaches would serve in the first instance to enable each parliament to carry out its tasks better and more effectively. The repercussions of the debate for discussions in the parliaments of EU member states con­stitute a further argument for their establishment. Na­tional representatives would obtain an insight into how individual questions are being debated in other coun­tries or at the European level, thus developing a stronger Community perspective and take these experiences back with them to their own parliaments. But it also works the other way around: European representatives would get the chance through this exchange of views to discuss the problems of the concrete application of European policies and could take them on board in their work.