A review of the social protection of parliamentarians was launched at the Conference of the Association of the General Secretaries of Parliaments which was held in Brussels in April 1999. It was decided to devise a questionnaire designed to reveal, beyond the diversity of national legislative arrangements, the common principles likely to exist in this area. The questionnaire was then approved at the Berlin session in October 1999 and sent to all members of the Association. 56 countries responded to the questionnaire, which equates, after taking bicameral systems into account, to a total of 78 responses. The questions covered three main subjects, namely, the pension entitlement of parliamentarians by virtue of their elected office, their social security cover during the period of said term of office and, lastly, the social protection of the staff of parliamentary assemblies. This volume presents a summary of the main lessons to be drawn from the responses given on these three subjects, which form the object of a detailed analysis in the volume 2.

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