Parliaments play an important role as agreements reached are required to be domesticated through National Parliaments.
The ECOWAS Parliament was established by Article 13 of the ECOWAS Revised Treaty of 24 July 1993. The Revised Treaty refers to a protocol, which provides for the modalities for election of members of Parliament, its composition, functions, competences as well as its organisation. Thus, Protocol A/P.2/8/94 relating to the Community Parliament was signed on 6 August 1994 and entered into force on 14 March 2002. It was later amended by Supplementary Protocol A/SP.3/06 on 14 June 2006. The role of Parliament as stated in the Protocol is « a representative assembly of the people of the Community » serving as a forum for dialogue, consultation and consensus.
The Community Parliament is currently a non-legislative assembly, which issues advisory opinion to the Authority of Heads of State and Government and the Council of Ministers. It draws its membership from the National Assemblies of Member States. The Parliament is composed of one hundred and fifteen (115) seats. Each member state has a minimum of five (5) seats. The remaining seats are allocated to Member States on the basis of their population.
Recent News
Sensitization Workshop on the EPA Process for West African Parliamentarians. Accra, Ghana, 31 August – 1 September 2010
ECOWAS Parliament Committee on Trade, Customs and Free Movement of Persons. Bamako, 1 – 4 July 2008
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