EU Foreign Policy Cooperation: A Challenge for National Parliaments?

Abstract

Abstract. European cooperation in the foreign policy domain is changing decision making in a broad number of issues. The analysis of the action taken by two legislatures – the British and the Italian Parliaments – as regards two foreign policy initiatives – the EU/E3 negotiations with Iran and the debate over lifting the European Union (EU) arms embargo against China – provides important insights on the strategies adopted by national legislatures to deal with cooperation in this field. The analysis confirms that a democratic deficit exists at the national level; yet, it highlights that scrutiny performance is undermined not only by a lack of information from national governments and expertise on EU procedures but also by new political dynamics generated by the growing intergovernmental cooperation. In particular, the long chains of delegation and the accountability dilemma generated by the multilevel system of governance undermine both the capacity and willingness of parliaments to perform an adequate oversight. Parliaments wanting to reaffirm their role and the principle of EU democratic legitimacy at the national level need to recognize these limits and to loosen their traditional images as repositories of the sovereignty of single and separated nation-states.