The need for parliamentary cooperation among the SEECP member countries was first pointed out at the 1996 Sofia Conference, and it was explicitly emphasized in the Charter on good-neighbourly relations, stability, security and cooperation in South-Eastern Europe, adopted in Bucharest in 2000, in the part on the major forms of cooperation in the political and security field.

The parliaments of  then seven SEECP member countries took part at the first Conference of Presidents of Parliaments of South-Eastern Europe, held in Athens in 1997. Later five other countries from the region joined the Conference.

The following parliaments actively participate as founding members from the beginning: Parliament, Tirana; National Assembly, Sofia; Parliament, Athens; Assembly, Skopje; Parliament, Bucharest, National Assembly, Belgrade (as successor to the previously existing country); Grand National Assembly, Ankara. They were joined by the Parliamentary Assembly, Sarajevo in 2001; Parliament, Zagreb in 2005; Parliament, Chisinau in 2006; Parliament, Podgorica in 2007; and Parliament, Ljubljana in 2010.