Madam President of the Inter-Parliamentary Council,
Distinguished Presiding Officers of Parliaments,
Distinguished members of the Executive Committee,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the Swiss Federal Assembly, it is a great honour for me to welcome you to Geneva, a Swiss city with international standing and the capital of peace. Never before have so many eminent figures representing Parliaments all over the world come together on Swiss soil. I bid you all welcome.

My country has been a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Union for 109 years. It was a parliamentarian from my canton who took the first step towards establishing the Swiss IPU Group. Albert Gobat was a Bernese National Councillor and Minister of Education, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. On his initiative, the Swiss Parliament rapidly associated itself with the work of the Englishman Randal Cremer and the Frenchman Frédéric Passy. Switzerland is the host country of your headquarters and welcomes the prospect of a move by the Union to new premises in the near future.

The record of the IPU’s achievements is impressive. Its action led to the establishment of the International Court of Justice in the Hague. It survived two world wars. Decolonisation led to a healthy influx of new members. It has become an important forum for international cooperation. Its recently concluded Agreement with the United Nations is a move towards providing a parliamentary dimension to the world body.

Let me make one brief point in this connection. An inter-parliamentary assembly serves little purpose unless it has access to an interlocutor with executive status. In the absence of a world government, consider how useful it would be to have an encounter at the twice-yearly conferences with the United Nations Secretary-General, the Director-General of UNESCO or the Director-General of the World Trade Organization! They could then answer for their actions to parliamentarians. As a result, the IPU’s work would be followed more attentively by the leadership of the organisations concerned and their activities would, in turn, meet with a better response in our Parliaments.

Of course, I welcome the initiative of bringing together all the world’s presiding officers of Parliaments in New York at the end of August. I look forward to attending, and so does the President of the Council of States, Mr. Carlo Schmid. I am convinced of the usefulness of this historic gathering and trust that the Declaration that is to mark the culmination of the proceedings will help to promote our common goal of rapprochement between peoples and world peace.

The text that is being prepared reviews the key issues of our time, especially globalisation, Third World debt, protection of the environment, disarmament and the parliamentary dimension of international cooperation. The Declaration should serve as the roadmap for our action during the new century.

Switzerland, which stands outside the United Nations but is heavily involved in all its activities, is slowing drawing closer to the Organization.

Madam President, representative of the world’s biggest democracy and first woman President of the IPU Council, I raise my glass to you and to your colleagues.

I also wish to propose a toast to our Parliaments, who are the embodiment of the "Peoples of the United Nations", and to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, a sturdy centenarian brimming with vitality.