Introductory Note

1. From the Lisbon Conference to the draft Memorandum for the Rome Conference
The Working group, at the end of the first phase of its work, drew up a document: "Legislative complexity and the role of parliaments in the era of globalisation", which was submitted to the Lisbon Conference. The document, discussed and approved by the Conference itself, contained an analysis of the high degree of legislative complexity peculiar to the European Union, and of its consequences.
The conclusions point out that cooperation between Parliaments, and between them and other institutions, is essential if the quality of legislation is to be improved, within the context of the European Union.
The Working group was thus asked to continue its work.
In this second phase, the Working group felt it appropriate to concentrate on drafting a Memorandum, identifying possibilities for ongoing cooperation in this field between the Speakers and between parliamentary administrations, which the Conference might effectively promote.

2. The Working Group's activity
In the first stage of the activity of the Working Group, coordinated by Speaker Violante, the following Parliaments were represented: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the European Parliament; in the following stage also Denmark and Sweden joined the Working Group.
For the purposes of drafting the Memorandum, the Working Group began collecting information from all the parliaments on their ongoing experiences in this field. The Parliaments were thus asked to forward information notes on such experiences.
Most of the proposals included in the Memorandum reflect the ongoing experiences reported in the brief notes, that were discussed and validated in the two last meetings of the Working Group in Cogne and in Fiesole.
The Working group felt that in this second phase it would also be useful to seek input from other organizations, by following up the recommendation adopted in the Lisbon document of establishing links between parliaments, international organisations and research institutes.
The OECD and the European University Institute were thus asked, as international organizations possessing great expertise in the field of legislation, to provide their contribution to the Working Group's deliberations, also by reacting to the analysis given in the Lisbon document.
In this framework, the two meetings held this year were characterized by the contribution of the OECD Secretary-General at the Cogne meeting (1st April 2000) and of scholars designated by the European University Institute at Fiesole (16th June 2000).
All these contributions have formed the basis of specific documentation to be placed at the disposal of each Parliament. The following documents are therefore annexed to this Memorandum:

• the document entitled "Legislative complexity and the role of parliaments in the era of globalization", which remains an integral part of the conclusions of the Working Group;
• the full set of information notes sent by individual Parliaments to provide an overview of the most important experiences to improve the quality of legislation;
• the report drawn up by the OECD on the basis of questionnaire sent to the Parliaments of all the OECD member countries to obtain a worldwide picture;
• the report drafted by a group of scholars at the European University Institute, based on the debate at Fiesole on the future prospects for parliamentary legislative functions.

3. Modifications to the Memorandum since the Fiesole draft
The text of the Fiesole draft Memorandum has been amended to take into account the points agreed at the seminar and also further input that has since been received from the different delegations. The amendments refer mainly to the simplification of the document, which is now focused on the possible lines of action that might be adopted by the Conference itself or through agreements among the Speakers of the interested parliaments, also by means of specific guidelines to the parliamentary administrations.