IPEX

About IPEX

The"InterParliamentary EU information eXchange" (IPEX) is a platform for the rapid exchange of EU-related information between national parliaments. The internet platform and the personal network of the responsible IPEX correspondents strengthen and simplify interparliamentary cooperation within the European Union. This is particularly important in light of the provisions regarding the role of national parliaments in the Treaty of Lisbon. IPEX was established in September 2000 on the basis of a recommendation by the Conference of Speakers of the European Union Parliaments (EU-PPK). The website was launched in 2006 and has been continuously developed. The latest version went online in 2021.

Important for subsidiarity scrutiny procedures

Information on which points of an EU proposal are viewed critically, whether there are already concrete decisions on these points, and whether a specific EU dossier is being examined in other national parliaments should be available as early as possible. This also applies to the Participation in EU matters and in the area of other parliamentary participation rights in EU matters. This rapid exchange of information is facilitated by all national parliaments making this information (including an English or French translation in the case of resolutions) immediately available on the IPEX website.

Organizational structure

All national parliaments of the EU member states are IPEX members, as are the European Parliament and the national parliaments of the EU candidate countries.

Each national parliament has an IPEX correspondent who is available as a contact person in their own parliament, for other parliaments, and for the public. A central task is to keep IPEX up to date with parliamentary documents and other information. The Austrian Parliament is currently also represented on the IPEX Board. IPEX also provides a contact list of all Secretaries-General of the national parliaments.

You can reach the IPEX correspondent of the Austrian Parliament at internationaler-dienst@parlament.gv.at

Access

The IPEX website is freely accessible so that information can be retrieved from any device with Internet access. Creating an account makes it possible, for example, to save search queries and to activate notifications for defined areas of interest.

What information does the IPEX website provide?

The central component of the multilingual IPEX website is the IPEX database. It contains documents transmitted by the European Commission (EC) and parliamentary documents from the respective national parliaments. A comprehensive search function allows a differentiated search according to various parameters, such as the most recent resolutions passed by the respective chamber or parliament. EU projects to which many parliaments have made a contribution are highlighted on the website as "Documents with high activities".

In addition to having documents in the IPEX database, the website also contains other important documents relating to the European Union and adopted by national parliaments as part of the parliamentary procedure (resolutions, opinions, etc.) and scientific contributions.

More information can be found in the IPEX folder / PDF, 572 KB.

Further contents of the website

Interparliamentary conferences
IPEX also provides information on all interparliamentary conference formats at the EU level:

the Conference of Speakers of the EU Parliaments

the Conference of European Committees of National Parliaments (COSAC)

the Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Stability, Economic Coordination and Governance in the EU

the Inter-Parliamentary Conference for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Common Security and Defense Policy (CFSP/CSDP)

the Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group on Europol

A calendar overview makes it possible to search for documents relating to a specific interparliamentary conference.
News Section

The so-called "News Section" publishes EU-relevant news on the activities of the respective chamber or parliament. IPEX also contains a collection of links to relevant EU websites and other databases along with the websites of national parliaments.
Democracy Support Network

The IPEX website also hosts the Democracy Support Network set up by the European Parliament. The network provides information on the various projects to strengthen the capacity of the respective national parliaments in the field of democracy education.