Högenauer, A. L. & Neuhold, C. (2015) “Parliamentary administrations are an important pillar in the parliamentary scrutiny of EU affairs“, LSE EUROPP, 03 Απριλίου.
National parliaments were given new powers to scrutinise EU legislation in the Treaty of Lisbon. As Anna-Lena Högenauer and Christine Neuhold write, the intention was to bring EU issues closer to European citizens, however one largely overlooked feature is the role of parliamentary bureaucracies in national parliaments. Drawing on recent research they assess the extent to which parliamentary control has been exerted by administrators, rather than elected politicians, and whether this has undermined efforts to enhance the engagement of citizens with the EU’s legislative process.
National parliaments were for a long time perceived as “losers” or “late-comers” in EU politics. Despite the fact that more and more policy-making competences moved to the European level with every new EU Treaty, the role of national parliaments was confined to the ratification of EU Treaties and the control of their national government’s activities in the Council of Ministers. Until the mid-2000s, they had few means of influencing the EU’s institutions directly. However, in 2006, the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, initiated a “political dialogue” with the national parliaments. The parliaments could now send their comments on EU policy projects to the European Commission, and the Commission would respond to their concerns.
In 2009, the Treaty of Lisbon then further improved the information rights of national parliaments, who now received a wide range of policy-documents directly from the European institutions. In addition, Protocol 2 of the Treaty created the so-called “Early Warning Mechanism”: National parliaments are sent all EU legislative proposals and have eight weeks to comment on them. However, they are supposed to only comment on whether the proposals are in line with the principle of subsidiarity: i.e. on whether the proposals should be developed on the European level, or rather on the national or regional level.
Σχετικές αναρτήσεις:
- Kreilinger, V. (2014) “The relationship between national parliaments and the European Parliament remains contested in the area of economic governance“, LSE EUROPP, 26 Σεπτεμβρίου.
- Piedrafita, S. & Lannoo, K. (2014) “The new European Parliament: Workable but impaired?“, Politics and Institutions, CEPS Commentaries, 27 Ιουνίου.
- Booth, S. (2014) “The European Parliament is a failed experiment in pan-European democracy – national parliaments are the key to solving the democratic deficit“, LSE EUROPP, 21 Μαΐου.