Parliamentary scrutiny and partisan conflict in the Euro crisis. The case of the German Bundestag

Abstract

To manage the challenges resulting from the Euro crisis, EU institutions and member state governments established a number of measures aimed at enhancing coordination of budgetary and economic policy. The development of these measures came with considerable political conflicts. This article investigates empirically the extent to which political parties in the German Bundestag contributed to these conflicts by employing their information and control instruments. Differences in level of activity between parliamentary parties in the Bundestag are explained by strategic behaviors. The article contributes to political science debates regarding both the role of national parliaments in EU politics and on political conflicts in Germany resulting from the Euro crisis.