65th Interparliamentary Conference - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1978 - 70 Pfennig

From 3 to 14 September 1978, the Interparliamentary Union is organizing its 65th Annual Meeting in Bonn at the invitation of the German constituents. The German Bundestag is currently hosting the most traditional, oldest international parliamentary conference, which is attended by delegations from more than 70 countries. 500 parliamentarians advise in committees and in the General Assembly on a wide range of problems of international coexistence. Already in 1908 and 1928 inter-parliamentary conferences as a guest of the German group met in Berlin. The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) came into being in 1889, when parliamentarians from nine countries gathered in Paris for the first time at a conference on international arbitration at the suggestion of Sir William R. Cremer and his French colleague Frédéric Passy. For decades these questions and the problem of disarmament were the main themes of the conference. It played a significant role in the conclusion of the Hague Peace Conferences and was one of the pioneers of the idea of ​​the League of Nations. She strove to work for negotiated solutions to international issues. Another important area of ​​Union interest is the worldwide support and development of democratic institutions on a parliamentary basis. Members of the IPU are the so-called national groups, which are composed either of a certain number of deputies or - as in the case of the German Bundestag - of all members of a parliament. The promotion of personal contacts between parliamentarians across national borders proved to be an effective way of pursuing the objectives of the Union. In the beginning, only a dozen European countries and the USA and Japan worked together. Only after the Second World War did the IPU become a worldwide organization. In 1978, it had constituents from the following 75 countries: Egypt, Albania, Algeria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Federal Republic of Germany, Costa Rica, Denmark, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), German Democratic Republic, Ivory Coast, Finland, France, Gabon , Greece, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Yugoslavia, Canada, Kenya, Cuba, Lebanon, Liberia, Luxembourg, Malawi, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Nepal , New Zealand, Nicaragua, Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea (South Korea), Romania, Zambia, Sweden, Switzerland, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Thailand, Czechoslovakia, Turkey, Tunisia, USSR, Hungary, Venezuela, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Cameroon, United States of America, United Kingdom, Zaire. The main body of the Union is the Interparliamentary Conference, which meets twice a year. It expresses itself through resolutions and recommendations on all international issues that are suitable for parliamentary treatment. When voting on these decisions, the national groups have different numbers of votes, taking into account the size of the represented population. The steering committee of the Union is the Interparliamentary Council. It is composed of two representatives from each member group. The eleven-member Executive Committee, composed of representatives from all continents, prepares the meetings of the Council and is responsible for the budget of the Union. In the efforts of the IPU to promote the institutions of parliamentarism, the "Association of Secretaries-General of Parliaments" plays an essential role. It is a consultative body of the Union, which examines parliamentary procedures and working methods in view of the needs of the present and suggests improvements. The International Secretariat of the IPU is based in Geneva (Interparliamentary Bureau, Place du Petit Saconnex, 1211 Geneva 28, Switzerland). He is affiliated to the International Center for Parliamentary Documentation. (Text: Interparliamentary Union, Group of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn)