The European Parliament in EC external Relations, From the Inception of European Political Cooperation to the Single European Act

Abstract

European Political Cooperation represented one of the most innovative and yet vague and contested areas of cooperation among EC Member States. As an intergovernmental practice that left no room for supranational institutions, it did not contemplate any formal role for the European Parliament (EP). Focusing on the EP and EPC after the 1979 elections, this article aims at making three points. First, it argues that direct elections gave the EP stronger political arguments to claim more powers but parliamentary demands on EPC were not different from those emerged already in the early Seventies. Second, given Member States’ resistance to parliamentary pressures, the EP developed some original initiatives in international affairs, in order to undermine the intergovernmental features of EPC. Parliamentary actions were particularly effective on human rights issues. Finally, it points out that with the signing of the Single European Act, the role of the EP in foreign affairs remained, at best, limited.