The Standing Orders of the Scottish Parliament (Rule 3.1.d) gives the Presiding Officer and his deputies the task of representing the Parliament to the outside world. This is a significant element of their work.

This is an open, participative Parliament. Other parliaments, governments and organisations around the world want to do business with us. You can look at the visits programme for this year on Programme of Visits. As visits are subject to change please contact External Liaison Unit for up to date information. As a young organisation, we have much to learn from others with more experience and expertise across the range of the Parliament's responsibilities. Learning from others helps the Parliament and its members do a better job.

Much of the Parliament's work is impacted by European legislation or policy and so the Parliament and its committees need to engage with Brussels.

We can also share our knowledge of creating a modern democracy with others. This increases awareness of the Parliament in the outside world and gives Scotland greater influence.

The Presiding Officers, with cross-party support, work on the basis that external liaison activity needs to serve the purposes and priorities of the Parliament and that the Parliament can contribute particularly in terms of development of the sub-state role and of participatory democracy. The Presiding Officers work in co-operation with the Scottish Executive to maximise the impact of our efforts for Scotland and in consultation with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

The Parliament has established close links with the United Kingdom Parliament at Westminster and with the devolved assemblies in the UK. The Parliament also has close links with the Oireachtas, the national parliament of Ireland. The Parliament is a member of the British-Irish Interparliamentary Body and of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and is active in both groups.

Links with the European Parliament and the other EU institutions are of key importance too. Members of the Parliament also take part in the Committee of the Regions of the EU, the body which represents regional and sub-state interests in the EU, and in the Regional Chamber of the Council of Europe's Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe. The Parliament is also keen to develop strong links with fellow legislative regions and nations in Europe, including prospective members of the European Union.

The Parliament plays an important part in the annual Tartan Day celebrations in America and positive links with legislative and governmental bodies there are growing strongly. More information about Tartan Day can be found on the official website.

The Parliament welcomes visitors from across the world with an interest in devolved parliamentary democracy. Very many parliamentarians and government representatives have been to Edinburgh to share experience and ideas with us. In order to arrange programmes that meet the needs of our visitors and the Parliament we ask that requests to visit are made very well in advance. We are not normally able to arrange visits with less than six weeks’ notice or during Parliamentary recesses.

Individual committees are also developing links with counterparts in other parliaments where the remits for which they are responsible make this valuable.

If you would like to know more about the Parliament's external liaison you can get in touch with the External Liaison Unit.