Abstract
ABSTRACT Individual amendments at the committee stage offer Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) a valuable tool to change legislation, prior to its passage at the plenary stage. And until a recent rule change, they were also one of the last meaningful ways for MEPs to self-select into the EP legislative process. Applying theories of legislative organization, internal positions, and differences in national institutional background, we use novel data to examine why MEPs proposed amendments to select EP committees during a one-year period between October 2015 and 2016. Our findings address a remaining gap on the individual determinants for legislative behavior in the EP, while also highlighting the effects of uneven prestige and contestation found in the EP committee system.
Highlights
Individual amendments at the committee stage offer Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) a valuable tool to change legisla tion, prior to its passage at the plenary stage
Our analysis confirms that MEP backgrounds – both along partisan and individual lines, as well as legislators’ internal positions – do have bearing on their propensity to table single amendments to legislation at the committee stage and especially for those committees on which they serve
This underlines the importance of committee amendments, as suggested by Coen, Lehmann, and Katsaitis (2021)
Summary
Individual amendments at the committee stage offer Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) a valuable tool to change legisla tion, prior to its passage at the plenary stage. If MEPs with background connections to organized special interests are more likely to ‘demand’ specific policies, we might expect that they will be more active in tabling amendments at the committee stage: H2.
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