The International Parliamentary Scholarship of the German Bundestag (IPS, Internationales Parlaments-Stipendium des Deutschen Bundestages) is an international parliamentary fellowship program, organized annually by the German Bundestag. The IPS enables politically engaged young college graduates from the United States and France as well as from Central and South Eastern Europe to get to know the German parliamentary system through a five-month stay in Berlin (March 1 through July 31). The IPS invites graduates from 28 countries and includes a five month fellowship in the office of members of the German parliament.
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Program Description
The German Bundestag collaborates with the Humboldt University of Berlin to run its International Parliamentary Internships (IPS) scheme. This gives well qualified young people with a strong interest in politics from the USA and Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe the opportunity to gain first-hand experience of Germany’s system of parliamentary government. The scheme involves five month placements with Members of the German Bundestag. The participants are introduced to the wide variety of tasks carried out in a Member’s office. For example, they may find themselves drafting speeches, articles and letters or doing preparatory work for plenary sittings. The exchange programmes of the German Bundestag are conceived of as exciting ways of teaching young people about the significance of friendly cooperation based on shared political and cultural values. The scholarship-winners are chosen by the German Bundestag’s independent selection panel.
History of IPS
The German Bundestag has run the International Parliamentary Scholarship since 1986. The program has its origins in the Bundestag Internship Program (BIP). The BIP accepted young graduates only from the United States. 20 scholarships were granted in the years from 1986 to 1988. In 1989 a similar internship program with France was established, which was an exchange program between France and Germany, i.e. German graduates could also do parliamentary internship in the French Parliament. Since 1989 85 French university graduates have been granted scholarships of the German Bundestag and 80 German university graduates have received scholarships from the French Parliament. The IPS, at that time being officially called International Parliamentary Program (IPP), became open for university graduates from the countries of Central and South Eastern Europe after the end of the Cold War. In 1990 Polish and Hungarian applicants were offered an opportunity to participate in the International Parliamentary Scholarship. In the following years the German Bundestag has expanded the Program to include participants from Bulgaria (1995), the Czech Republic (1993), Estonia (1992), Latvia (1992), Lithuania (1992), Romania (1996), Russia (1993), Serbia (2004), Slovakia (1994), and Ukraine (2000). In 2001 Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia and in 2005 Georgia and Kazakhstan were also included in the IPS participants’ list. Since 2008 university graduates from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova and Belarus can also participate in the IPS program. Since 2009 university graduates from Kosovo and Macedonia can also partake of the program as citizens of respective states. Israel was also included in the list of IPS participating countries in 2009. As of 2007, 1,343 scholarship recipients have completed the parliamentary internship program in the German Bundestag.