The administrative assistance to interparliamentary cooperation : the practice of the German Bundestag

Abstract

The author who is Head of the Division on Interparliamentary Affairs of the German Federal Parliament, the Bundestag, gives an overview about the interparliamentary relations of the Bundestag and the administrative assistance given to it by its staff. He also briefly describes the five Interparliamentary Assemblies the Bundestag is member of. In the first part of his report, he comes to the conclusion that in foreign politics, formerly considered to be a prerogative of the Executive Branch of Government, interparliamentary cooperation -or parliamentary diplomacy- has become an important element. At the same time he sees this cooperation as a factor of democratization in the era of globalization. The second part of his report names different types of possible structures for the administrative assistance to interparliamentary cooperation and presents the German way of organizing it as a prototype of a decentralized structure.