TRANS-NATIONAL LOBBYING AND THE INFLUENCE OF PARLIAMENTARY FRIENDSHIP GROUPS

Political relations with the national parliaments of foreign states are cultivated by bilateral and multilateral parliamentary friendship groups. Their purpose is to promote ongoing dialogue with the parliamentary institutions of one or more partner states. Primarily, this involves exchanges of information and opinions with members of other parliaments. In parallel to these discussions with their peers, the groups also organise meetings with government and civil-society representatives. All these encounters offer numerous opportunities for the participants to discuss differing worldviews and learn from each other.

Parliamentary friendship groups are formed on a cross-party basis and do not have statutes or rules of procedure of their own. Only Members of the parliament may join the parliamentary friendship groups. Joining a group reflects a Member’s special interest in relations with the partner state or states for which it is responsible. The decision to get involved in a particular parliamentary friendship group may be prompted by existing personal links, a strong concern with a particular aspect of foreign policy, or economic and cultural ties between their constituency and the partner state. The parliamentary friendship groups are constituted anew by the Presidium at the beginning of each electoral term. The chairs of the parliamentary friendship groups are allocated to the parliamentary groups in line with their relative strengths, while the parliamentary groups that do not provide the chair of a group are all able to appoint one member each to its executive.

The members of the parliamentary friendship groups seek to meet up as often as possible with politicians from their partner states to discuss topics and problems in which they share a common interest. This also enables them to explain and communicate their country’s positions. Apart from these contacts, the parliamentary friendship groups come together to hold meetings of their members, hear lectures and conduct discussions about the political situation in their partner states. Their cooperation with the diplomatic representations in the foreign country gives Members further opportunities to gather information.

In the course of an electoral term, parliamentary friendship groups are  able to invite their delegation of parliamentarians from their partner country or region to their country and send a delegation to visit their colleagues. These trips help to foster better understanding as well as deepening existing contacts. Talks are almost always marked by a very frank and informal atmosphere. The members of parliamentary friendship groups do not have to pay as much attention to the niceties of international diplomacy as government representatives. They can articulate their points of view clearly, even in difficult contexts or when discussing politically sensitive issues, such as human rights. The members of the parliamentary friendship groups welcome many foreign guests from the fields of politics, business, academic life, culture and the media who want to learn about the political situation in the country or the national parliamentary system and the work of the national parliament. The experiences these visitors gather in the country can be very helpful, particularly for states that are just starting out on their democratic development. In this respect, the cross-party composition of the parliamentary friendship groups has an emblematic importance, since it illustrates how democratic forms of behaviour can be filled with life. The groups offer parliamentarians from young democracies vivid examples of people with radically opposed opinions presenting different points of view in a balanced way and debating issues objectively. Talks with opposition politicians can strengthen the democratic forces in the parliamentary friendship groups’ partner states. The groups are also able to contribute to the resolution of conflicts by offering the representatives of conflicting parties the opportunity to hold joint negotiations on neutral ground or with impartial mediation.