On 11 July 2019, the Launch Conference of the INTER PARES | Parliaments in Partnership - EU Global Project to Strengthen the Capacity of Parliaments, organised by the European Commission and International IDEA, and hosted by the European Parliament, took place in Brussels, Belgium.
Pat Cox, Former President of the European Parliament, opened the conference with the following words:
“What we value must be nourished, renewed and re-energized, by each generation, rendering our democracies fit for the times we live in: which says for everything to stay the same, everything must change. We are better together; and that is what this whole process really is about. I feel what you’re about to launch here in INTER PARES is a really vital project.”
The INTER PARES programme, fully funded by the European Commission and delivered by International IDEA is an innovative global programme which aims to strengthen representative and inclusive democracy through support to the effective functioning of parliaments in partner countries.
The objective of the kick-off conference was to formally launch the INTER PARES programme and to share lessons learned on EU Member States` interparliamentary cooperation. The conference provided a platform for the INTER PARES core partners to exchange views on the project framework and its activities, and on knowledge sharing platforms, such as AGORA, iKNOW Politics and IPU’s Centre for Innovation in Parliaments. The conference also explored the role of academia and civil society in parliamentary development and aimed to identify common approaches to parliamentary assistance.
The Launch Conference brought together around 150 participants, including 22 panellists from EU Member State Parliaments, EU representatives from the European Commission, European Parliament and the EEAS, and parliamentary support actors, from UN agencies and the Inter-Parliamentary Union, to the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, The Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy, Parliamentarians for Global Action and many others.
