Abstract
The Lisbon Treaty gave the European Parliament extensive new powers and its consent is now required for the vast majority of EU international agreements. At the same time, national parliaments—and even regional ones—are increasingly asserting their powers over areas of European governance that were traditionally dominated by the executive. Exerting influence and conducting oversight is time-consuming, however. Particularly at the EU-level parliaments cannot influence or scrutinise every policy dossier with equal rigour. A key factor directing parliamentary attention seems to be the ‘politicisation’ of an issue. In other words, the amount of contestation and attention given to a particular issue seems to affect parliamentary activity. This thematic issue seeks to assess <em>how</em> politicisation affects the role parliaments play within the system of EU governance. In particular, the contributions aim to answer the over-arching question of whether politicisation has an impact on how parliaments seek to influence policy-making and hold the EU executives to account. Furthermore, we raise the question of whether and how politicisation affects the role of parliaments as arenas for contestation and communication of different political interests. Jointly, the findings provide the empirical foundations for a more comprehensive debate regarding the democratic implications of politicisation. Politicisation puts pressure on parliaments to act, but parliamentarians themselves may also find it in their interest to instigate contestation. This thematic issue addresses these questions by shedding light on both the European Parliament and national parliaments and examines different policy-fields reaching from climate change and trade, to financial affairs and the Common Fisheries Policy.
Highlights
In October 2016, the small region of Wallonia in Southern Belgium made world headlines when it interrupted the ratification of the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement in the Council
Through the Lisbon Treaty, we have seen the empowerment of the European Parliament (EP), whose consent is required for the vast majority of EU international agreements
National parliaments—and even regional ones—are increasingly asserting their powers over areas of European governance traditionally dominated by executive actors
Summary
In October 2016, the small region of Wallonia in Southern Belgium made world headlines when it interrupted the ratification of the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement in the Council. As Gheyle (2019) argues in this thematic issue, parliamentarisation is closely associated with politicisation This might be another reason why much of the literature has focused on how parliaments function as arenas for, and how parliamentarians are actors in, public debate, rather than studying how and why they aim to alleviate conflict. Going beyond how national parliaments provide arenas for contestation and actors in processes of politicisation, a number of contributions to this thematic issue look at the EP’s interaction with the Council and Commission during decisionmaking processes They demonstrate how the politicisation of issues is shown to have an impact on the negotiations, but not necessarily in the direction one would expect. While politicisation may serve to increase parliamentary scrutiny of EU executives, de-politicisation of issues is seen as key to secure policy gains at the international level as well as during legislative processes
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