European Business and the Assemblies

Abstract

The new Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly were expected to have key and pioneering roles to play in the UK-EU policy process. The central legislative framework for devolution — the White Papers and the Parliamentary Acts — stated this explicitly. The essentially prescriptive and general nature of the legislation meant that the manner in which the two assemblies, and their committees, would interact with the UK-EU system remained undecided at the time of its publication. Importantly, it was left up to the territorial institutions to determine, in accordance with their own consultation procedures, how the Parliament and Assembly would best input to EU business. Furthermore, given that domestic and regional parliamentary influence across the EU varies considerably between Member States, the new assemblies could look to many different models of parliamentary influence to determine ‘best practice’. With devolution, therefore, both the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly had a clear opportunity to create the necessary institutional setting and procedures to conduct effective sub-Member State parliamentary influence over EU affairs.