Iran, European Parliaments Stress Expansion of Ties


Iran, European Parliaments Stress Expansion of Ties

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – In a meeting between officials from Iran’s legislature and the visiting European Parliament delegation, the two sides emphasized the need for expansion of parliamentary and bilateral relations.

In a Sunday meeting between Iran’s Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani and head of a five-member delegation from the European Parliament, the two sides discussed diverse issues, including broadening of parliamentary ties.

The meeting between the European delegation, headed by Hannes Swoboda, and Larijani was also attended by Chairman of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi.

The European delegation will stay in Tehran for four days.

In October 2012, an EP delegation, headed by Tarja Cronberg, the chairwoman of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Iran, was scheduled to make a six-day visit to Islamic Republic and meet with the EP Friendship Group of Iran’s parliament.

However, the EP delegation cancelled its trip after Iran rejected the group’s request to meet with two Iranian nationals jailed on charges of breaching national security. Tehran had ruled out the request as interference in the country’s internal affairs.

The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the 28-member European Union (EU), which together with the Council of the European Union and the European Commission, exercises the legislative function of the EU.

The parliament is currently composed of 766 members, who have been directly elected every five years by universal suffrage since 1979.

Although the European Parliament has legislative power that the Council and Commission do not possess, it does not formally possess legislative initiative, as most national parliaments of European Union member states do.

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