The Benelux Union or Benelux is a politico-economic union and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighbouring states in western Europe: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The name is a portmanteau formed from joining the first few letters of each country's name and was first used to name the customs agreement that initiated the union. It is now used more generally to refer to the geographic, economic, and cultural grouping of the three countries.
The Western European Union was the international organisation and military alliance that succeeded the Western Union (WU) after the 1954 amendment of the 1948 Treaty of Brussels. The WEU implemented the Modified Brussels Treaty. During the Cold War, the Western Bloc included the WEU member-states, plus the United States and Canada, as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Sally Rachel Hamwee, Baroness Hamwee is a Liberal Democrat politician and their Lead Home Affairs Spokesperson in the House of Lords. She is a Life Peer and former chair of the London Assembly.
The parliamentary committees of the United Kingdom are committees of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Each consists of a small number of Members of Parliament from the House of Commons, or peers from the House of Lords, or a mix of both, appointed to deal with particular areas or issues; most are made up of members of the Commons. The majority of parliamentary committees are select committees. The remit of these committees vary depending on whether they are committees of the House of Commons or the House of Lords.
In British politics, parliamentary select committees can be appointed from the House of Commons, like the Foreign Affairs Select Committee; from the House of Lords, like the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee; or as a joint committee of Parliament drawn from both, such as the Joint Committee on Human Rights. Committees may exist as "sessional" committees – i.e. be near-permanent – or as "ad-hoc" committees with a specific deadline by which to complete their work, after which they cease to exist, such as the Lords Committee on Public Service and Demographic Change.
The Eurasian Economic Community was a regional organisation between 2000 and 2014 which aimed for the economic integration of its member states. The organisation originated from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) on 29 March 1996, with the treaty on the establishment of the Eurasian Economic Community signed on 10 October 2000 in Kazakhstan's capital Astana by Presidents Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, Askar Akayev of Kyrgyzstan, Vladimir Putin of Russia, and Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan. Uzbekistan joined the community on 7 October 2005, but later withdrew on 16 October 2008.
The Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union (COSAC) is a conference of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and national Members of Parliament (MPs) who are drawn from parliamentary committees responsible for European Union affairs.
The European Scrutiny Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Following Britain's withdrawal from the European Union in January 2020 and the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020, the Committee continues to "monitor the legal and/or political importance of new EU legislation and policy and assess their potential implications for the UK. It may also scrutinise the implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement, the Protocol on Northern Ireland and the UK/EU Trade & Cooperation Agreement."
In general, the law of the European Union is valid in all of the twenty-seven European Union member states. However, occasionally member states negotiate certain opt-outs from legislation or treaties of the European Union, meaning they do not have to participate in certain policy areas. Currently, three states have such opt-outs: Denmark, Ireland and Poland. The United Kingdom had four opt-outs before leaving the Union.
European Union (EU) concepts, acronyms, and jargon are a terminology set that has developed as a form of shorthand, to quickly express a (formal) EU process, an (informal) institutional working practice, or an EU body, function or decision, and which is commonly understood among EU officials or external people who regularly deal with EU institutions.
The national parliaments of the European Union are those legislatures responsible for each member state of the European Union (EU). They have a certain degree of institutionalised influence which was expanded under the Treaty of Lisbon to include greater ability to scrutinise proposed European Union law.
Scottish Parliament committees are small groups of Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) who meet on a regular basis to scrutinise the work of the Scottish Government, conduct inquiries into subjects within their remit and examine legislation. Much of the everyday work of the Scottish Parliament is done by these committees.
The Interparliamentary EU information exchange (IPEX), is a platform for the exchange of information between EU national parliaments as well as the European Parliament concerning issues related to the European Union, especially in light of the provisions of the Treaty of Lisbon. The Treaty of Lisbon explicitly sets out the role of the national parliaments in the "Protocol on the role of national Parliaments in the European Union" and in the "Protocol on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality".
The Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee is a select committee of the House of Lords that refers secondary legislation, such as statutory instruments, to the House that it considers interesting or important. This is unlike the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments and Commons Select Committee on Statutory Instruments, which only scrutinise instruments for legal and drafting defects. The specific criteria used by the committee are whether the legislation—
- is politically or legally important or gives rise to issues of public policy likely to be of interest to the House
- may be inappropriate in view of changed circumstances since the enactment of the parent Act
- may inappropriately implement European Union legislation
- may imperfectly achieve its policy objectives.
The European committees are general committees of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom to which the European Scrutiny Committee (ESC) may refer for further consideration European Union documents laid before the Commons. EU documents are referred to one of three European committees depending on the subject area as determined by the ESC:
The following is a list of committees in the States General of the Netherlands.
Committees of the New Zealand House of Representatives are subsets of the New Zealand House of Representatives which deal with specific tasks delegated to them by the House. The functions of committees include scrutinising draft legislation (bills), conducting inquiries into subjects within their expertise, receiving public comment on matters before them, and overseeing the operation of the public service.
The European Union Act 2020 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that makes legal provision for ratifying the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement and incorporating it into the domestic law of the United Kingdom. It is the most significant constitutional piece of legislation to be passed by Parliament of the Second Johnson ministry. The Withdrawal Agreement was the result of Brexit negotiations.
The United Kingdom was a member state of the European Union and of its predecessor the European Communities from 1973 until 2020. Since the foundation of the European Communities, it has been an important neighbour, and was a leading member state until its withdrawal from the EU on 31 January 2020 as a result of Brexit, ending 47 years of membership.
The International Agreements Committee is a select committee of the House of Lords in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Originally a sub-committee of the European Union Committee, the International Agreements Committee has a remit to examine all treaties presented before Parliament as per the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010, as well as to consider negotiations with foreign states and international bodies.
