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The first “Conference of Members of Parliament from the NATO Countries” was held at NATO Headquarters in the Palais de Chaillot in Paris on 18-21 July 1955, bringing together 158 parliamentarians from 15 NATO nations.

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The conference elected Senator Wishart McLea Robertson of Canada as its President and agreed to establish a Continuing Committee – the precursor of the Standing Committee – consisting of the President, three vice-Presidents and one representative from each delegation and further decided to appoint a small, part-time secretariat, initially based in London until it moved to Paris in 1960.

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In 1956, the NATO Committee of Three’s Report on Non-Military Cooperation in NATO recommended closer relations between NATO and the parliamentary conference.

The Committee of Three looked at five areas:

1. political cooperation
2. economic cooperation
3. cultural cooperation
4. cooperation in the information field
5. organisation and functions

[ Extract ] 58. (…) the formation of national Parliamentary Associations and the activities of the Conference of Members of Parliament from NATO countries have contributed to the development of public support for NATO and solidarity among its members. 59. In order to maintain a close relationship of Parliamentarians with NATO, the following arrangements are recommended: a. that the Secretary General continue to place the facilities of NATO Headquarters at the disposal of Parliamentary Conferences and give all possible help with arrangements for their meetings; b. that invited representatives of member governments and the Secretary General and other senior NATO civil and military officers attend certain of these meetings. (…) [ End of Extract ]

In preparing its Report the Committee of Three met with the Standing Committee of the Conference of Members of Parliament from the NATO Countries.

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The leaders of Allied governments, in their Declaration on Atlantic Relations, recognised that “The cohesion of the Alliance has found expression not only in co-operation among their governments, but also in the free exchange of views among the elected representatives of the peoples of the Alliance. Accordingly, they declare their support for the strengthening of links among Parliamentarians”.

In 1980, the Assembly began holding two plenary sittings each year. With the introduction of a plenary session in the spring in addition to the autumn annual session, the pattern of Assembly activities was set to remain largely unchanged until the end of the Cold War.

In the late 1980s, the Assembly reacted promptly to a rapidly changing security environment. By reaching out to Central and Eastern Europe, involving legislators from countries in the region in cooperation and dialogue, and assisting them in exercising effective parliamentary oversight and control, the Assembly made a vital contribution to the construction of a more stable, secure and democratic Europe.

The Sub-Committee on Central and Eastern Europe travelled to Budapest at the invitation of the Hungarian National Assembly.

Led by Patrick Duffy, M.P. of the United Kingdom, a delegation of 19 Parliamentarians representing 12 of the 16 NATO nations began a five-day visit to Moscow on 3 July. This marked the first visit to the Soviet Union by the North Atlantic Assembly. Deemed a “historic” visit by the hosts, the delegation met with Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov and Defence Minister Dimitri Yazov, amongst others.

Sir Patrick Duffy, United Kingdom, President of the NATO PA, 1988 – 1990.

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In October 1989, General of the Soviet Army Vladimir Lobov became the first leading military official to address the Annual Meeting in Rome. The General, a guest of the Defence and Security Committee, spoke on the theme “Towards Conventional Stability in Europe” alongside General John Galvin, NATO Supreme Allied Commander, Europe.

With the end of the Cold War came a new era of cooperation—expanding partnerships, welcoming new members, and strengthening democratic values across an ever-growing community of like-minded nations.

At the Annual Session in London, the Assembly adopted Resolution 224 on “New Regional Responsibilities for a Transformed Alliance” which created the new status of “associate delegation”.

This status allowed the integration of parliaments from Central and Eastern Europe into Assembly activities before the establishment of equivalent ties by NATO itself.

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The first Rose Roth seminar was held in Lithuania in a tense environment with Soviet troops still present in the country.

The Rose-Roth Initiative

Then President of the Assembly Congressman Charlie Rose and Senator William Roth initiated a substantial programme of practical assistance to the partner parliaments with a particular focus on the development of appropriate civil-military relations. The Rose-Roth initiative has remained as today the Assembly’s primary tool for engagement with delegations from non-NATO member countries.

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The Assembly was directly concerned with assisting in the process of ratification of the Protocols of Accession signed at the end of 1997, which culminated in the accession of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland to the Alliance in March 1999.

In 1996, the Assembly established a Mediterranean and Middle East Special Group (GSM), a forum for cooperation and discussion with parliaments from the Middle East and North Africa.

The GSM provides a forum for maintaining close relations with parliamentarians from partner countries in the Mediterranean Area, the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula with a view to deepening cooperation and building mutual understanding. It also seeks to facilitate and promote dialogue among partners.
GSM page

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At the historic Madrid Summit, in which the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland were formally invited to accede to NATO, then NATO PA President, US Senator William Roth, addressed NATO Heads of State and Government.

The invitation from NATO leaders to Senator Roth represented a tacit acknowledgement that the Assembly had played a key role in paving the way to enlargement and would have a central role in encouraging parliamentary ratification of enlargement. Since then, NATO PA Presidents have been invited to address all NATO Summits.

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The NATO PA created a New Parliamentarians Programme aimed at giving new members of parliament, or members of parliament new to defence issues, a better understanding of NATO’s structures and processes. The initiative was aimed at parliamentarians under forty years of age in their first term in Parliament. The programme is today known as the “NATO Orientation programme”. Forty-two young parliamentarians participated in the first course.

As NATO adapts to these new challenges, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly plays a key role in explaining the reality and requirements of today’s security environment to citizens in Europe and North America, as well as dispelling misperceptions about NATO.

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At the Annual Session in November 2004 in Venice, Italy, which marked the beginning of celebrations of the Assembly’s 50th Anniversary, the entire North Atlantic Council joined members of the Assembly in a special plenary meeting for the first time.

In 2003, NATO took over command of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan (ISAF). While the ISAF assisted the new democratically elected government of Afghanistan to re-establish control over its territory and rebuild its security structures, the Assembly reached out to the new Afghan Parliament. The Assembly conducted its first official visit to Afghanistan in 2004 and in 2007, a group of Afghan parliamentarians attended a NATO PA session for the first time.

Following the August 2008 conflict in Georgia, the Assembly decided to strengthen its institutional relationship with the Georgian Parliament by creating the Georgia-NATO Interparliamentary Council (GNIC). Georgia became an Associate Member of the Assembly in May 1999. Through its cooperation with the Georgian Parliament, the Assembly has supported Georgia’s reform agenda and its goal of eventual Alliance membership.

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NATO’s Summit in Wales in September 2014 opened a new chapter in the Alliance’s evolution in a security environment characterised by tensions to the East and growing instability in the South. In this context, parliamentary support, dialogue and diplomacy remain as important as ever.

On 7 June 2017, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly President Paolo Alli (Italy) attended the flag-raising ceremony organised at NATO Headquarters to mark Montenegro’s accession to NATO. The President's participation underlined the NATO PA’s long-standing and continuing support for NATO’s Open Door policy.

On 19 November 2018, Madeleine Moon was elected as President of the NATO PA by the entire assembly at the plenary session in Halifax, Canada. Moon succeeded President ad interim Rasa Jukneviciene.

On 27 March 2020, North Macedonia became NATO’s and the Assembly’s 30th member. The preceding month, NATO PA President Attila Mesterhazy (Hungary) attended the ratification of the North Atlantic Treaty by the Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia in Skopje.

The COVID-19 pandemic was an unprecedented and multidimensional crisis, affecting citizens’ health, their way of life, the global economy and international security. The Assembly addressed COVID-19 in a series of reports and recommendations and continued to address the other critical challenges the transatlantic Alliance faced. In a time when the Assembly could not meet in person, the NATO PA offered a multilingual web conferencing platform for its members to exchange on these priorities.

Most importantly, it held its 66th Annual Session in a virtual format enabling the Assembly to successfully deliver upon its 2020 political priorities, to adopt important policy recommendations on the main challenges facing Europe and North America and to elect its new leadership.

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Democracies are facing new threats. Terrorism, extremism, disinformation and outside interference target the principles and institutions at the heart of their societies. Autocratic regimes seek to promote “alternative models” of repression and disregard for international law and fundamental rights and work to undermine the international rules-based order.

To counter these threats and rededicate the Alliance to its shared democratic values, the Assembly, at the initiative of President Gerald E. Connolly (United States), proposed the establishment of a Centre for Democratic Resilience at NATO Headquarters. First put forward in 2019, this proposal remains one of the Assembly’s top priorities.

The NATO PA Standing Committee created a “Women for Peace and Security Award”. The award was presented for the first time in 2021 during the Plenary Sitting of the 67th Annual Session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, taking place in Lisbon, Portugal.

The purpose of this prize is to honour a woman who has demonstrated, in the context of political, diplomatic, military, associative and/or academic functions, a particular and recognised commitment to:

• equal participation of women and men in the field of peace and security.
• the prevention of conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence and the protection of women in conflict situations.
• and/or the mainstreaming of women's needs and perspectives into relief and recovery initiatives in post-conflict countries.

The Honourable Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, was awarded the first-ever Women for Peace and Security Award.

On 24 February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to start a war of choice against Ukraine, triggering the gravest security crisis in Europe since World War II. The Assembly has stood with Ukraine from day one, affirming its unwavering support for Ukraine, its sovereignty, territorial integrity and right to self-defense and self-determination.

Since the start of Russia’s renewed invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the Assembly as a whole, national delegations and individual members of parliament have played their full part in denouncing Russia’s aggression and mobilising the support of Allied parliaments, governments and citizens for Ukraine, through:

• Persistent, active engagement with the Ukrainian delegation and leading Ukrainian officials
• Strong political messages in reports, resolutions and public statements
• Stepped up practical assistance to the Ukrainian Parliament, including through the Assembly’s special fund

On 4 April 2023, NATO Parliamentary Assembly President Joëlle Garriaud-Maylam (France), attended the flag-raising ceremony at NATO Headquarters to mark Finland’s accession to NATO. As in the past, the NATO PA encouraged prompt parliamentary ratification and kept track of the accession progress.