President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives sign 'Trio Declaration' in Rome

The President of the Senate, Ms Ankie Broekers-Knol and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ms Anouchka van Miltenburg, have signed a cooperation agreement with the presidents of the parliaments of Slovakia and Malta, on Monday 20 April 2015 at the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian parliament in Rome.

The agreement relates to the successive EU Presidencies of the three countries. The Netherlands will hold the EU Presidency in the first half of 2016, Slovakia in the second half of 2016 and Malta in the first half of 2017. During their presidencies the parliaments will organise several parliamentary conferences.

The signing of such a cooperation agreement, the so-called 'Trio Declaration' is a good practice. Through this agreement parliaments arrange for mutual cooperation in the build up to and during the EU Presidency, which rotates twice a year. In the Netherlands the preparations of the Dutch Presidency have already started; the signing of the cooperation agreement is a major step in this process. The signing took place in the Chamber of Deputies in Rome, in the margin of the annual Conference of Presidents. On that occasion the four Presidents briefly commented on the importance and the nature of their cooperation.