The Case for a European Senate. A model for the representation of national parliaments in the European Union

Citizen-centred or state-centred? The representational design of International Parliamentary Institutions

“…We call this design citizen-centred. In contrast, many upper houses represent jurisdictions or communities, especially in federal and multinational political systems akin to the environments in which IOs operate (e.g., Tsebelis and Rasch 1995). Since, in the international realm, these jurisdictions are states, we call this design state-centred.…”

“…If principals disagree, politicians experience cross-pressure as, for instance, members of ideological groups that also have territorial constituencies (Carey 2007;Carey and Shugart 1995). Congruence between legislative bodiessuch as in a bicameral parliamenthelps avoid cross-pressures (e.g., Tsebelis and Rasch 1995). In the case of IPIs, the main question is whether parliamentarians will sit in ideological or national groups.…”

The ‘Deparliamentarisation’ of Legislation: Framework Laws and the Primacy of the Legislature

“…Second, a Senate made up of members of national parliaments could play an important role in the scrutiny of draft EU legislation, 89 especially with respect to the constitutional, socio-economic and political consequences that draft EU laws might have for the Member States. 90 This could go well beyond the current monitoring of subsidiarity issues and include: a critical assessment of the consideration of alternatives to legislation (self-regulation, coregulation, communicative instruments) through impact assessments; 91 monitoring the choice between different types of legislation (e.g. regulations versus directives, directives versus framework directives, or temporary versus more permanent rules) and deciding the government level at which the rules need to be made (delegation); considering whether there are practical stumbling-blocks for the implementation and enforcement of EU laws at the national level, and so on.…”

Editorial<br>Dutch Constitutional Law in a Globalizing World

“…First, the idea of constituting a European Senate is aired, which would be designed to increase the influence of national legislatures at the European level. 12 Second, the idea to accept the increase in delegated legislation but to subject such legislation to clear procedural rules in combination with judicial review is explored. The final idea aired by Van Gestel is to rely more on substantive framework legislation but with conditions for private rule-making.…”