research note: studying a new phase of europeanisation of national parliaments

Abstract

In this research note, we propose studying a new trend of Europeanisation in national parliaments within the European Union (EU). We argue that further integration, combined with the opportunities and challenges presented by the Lisbon Treaty and the financial crisis, created pressure on national parliaments to expand the scrutiny process beyond European Affairs Committees. In this new phase of Europeanisation, parliaments are increasingly 'mainstreaming' EU affairs scrutiny, blurring the distinction between national and European policies and involving larger numbers of MPs. Following a review of existing research on the Europeanisation of national parliaments in the post-Lisbon era, we propose studying four dimensions of mainstreaming: the rising involvement of sectoral committees in European affairs; the adaptation of parliamentary staff to EU policy-making; the growing salience of European affairs in plenary debates; and increasing inter-parliamentary cooperation beyond European affairs specialists. We argue that this trend has significant implications for research that studies the roles of national parliaments in the democratic functioning of the EU.

Parliamentary Administrations in EU Politics: The Sources and Impact of Diversity

“…Another trend towards divergence lies in the organization of EU staff. While some parliaments rely exclusively on their EACs for to scrutinize EU affairs, while others have mainstreamed this activity and rely primarily on their sectoral committees (see Gattermann et al 2015). Yet others use a mixed system where the EAC and the relevant sectoral committee both influence the final decisions of parliament.…”

Regional parliaments in the EU multilevel parliamentary system

“…Boronska-Hryniewiecka, 2013a). These trends are so far best documented at the national level, where the Lisbon Treaty has affected delegation to parliamentary administrations (Högenauer & Christiansen, 2015), the organization of committee work (Gattermann et al, 2015) Bursens, 2016). On either level of analysis, we expect substantial variation in the different types of activities we outlined in this paper.…”

Conclusion: regional parliaments – a distinct role in the EU?

“…However, based on the literature on national parliaments (e.g. Gattermann et al, 2015;Hefftler and Gattermann, 2015), Author 1 (this volume) also expected the EWS to indirectly empower regional parliaments by triggering internal reforms that allowed them to react to EU affairs faster and more effectively.…”