PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY - Inter-Parliamentary Union

172 I PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
■ The cost implications of regional integration and parliamentary
cooperation must be considered, especially for poor regions.
Similarly the cost of not promoting regional cooperation should also
be measured.
■ Political concerns about the potential loss of sovereignty to supranational
bodies need to be addressed.
“All of the above,” it concludes, “has implications for South Africa, as the
failure to overcome these challenges can only undermine its domestic efforts
at nation-building.”
Further online reading about parliam entary oversight
of national representatives in the EU Council of Ministers:
Travers, D (2002). European Affairs Committees. The influence of national
parliaments on European policies. European Centre for Parliamentary Research
and Documentation
Parliamentary cooperation
In many ways the IPU is the precursor to international or multilateral cooperation.
The organisation was founded in 1889 at a time when there was not
yet any political forum for representatives of States where they could meet to
address common problems. The idea thus emerged to establish a permanent
meeting place for leading politicians of the day to promote peace and security
through dialogue.
While the IPU is therefore the precursor to organisations for inter-parliamentary
cooperation, it did not remain alone for very long. Other mechanisms
for inter-parliamentary cooperation soon emerged, first in Europe and then in
other parts of the world as did various forms of parliamentary cooperation,
both at the global and regional levels. In this section we will consider three
types of parliamentary cooperation: parliamentary diplomacy, inter-parliamentary
cooperation, and technical cooperation.
Parliamentary diplomacy
A diplomat is an envoy of the executive branch and represents the positions
of the State. Members of parliament, however, are politicians who hold polit-