Abstract
Despite its enhanced legislative powers, the European Parliament still struggles to be recognised as an authoritative and reliable political actor. Its current role in EU digital governance serves as a good example to illustrate both the aspirations of the parliamentarians as well as their actual impact. Confronted with a horizontal policy issue that affects all sectors of the analogue and digital world parliamentary working methods have proven to be unfit for purpose. The European Parliament has so far been unable to assume leadership to guide the EU through the digital transformation process. Yet, its aspirations are not pulled out of thin air. Intellectual freedom, swift decision-making channels, and an open and pragmatic debating culture make it, in fact, predestined to define an overarching and balanced digital agenda for the EU. Before this is achievable, however, it is necessary to execute comprehensive internal reforms to overcome a list of structural, financial, political and external deficits.
Highlights
The European Parliament (EP) is a fascinating political actor
Compared to many national parliaments where, as illustrated by Koschnick (2019), political initiatives come directly from ministries or political parties, and party discipline is omnipresent, the independent mandate of each MEP is still worthy of its name
Despite President von der Leyen’s support for the latter, proclaimed in her speech on 16 July 2019 (European Commission 2019), the legislative proposals of the European Commission on topics such as artificial intelligence (AI) or the Digital Services Act look quite different from the prior own-initiative reports of the EP
Summary
For them and their staff, the EP offers extensive intellectual freedom, swift decision-making channels and (mostly) hands-off political leadership, as well as an open debate culture and pragmatic togetherness. Compared to many national parliaments where, as illustrated by Koschnick (2019), political initiatives come directly from ministries or political parties, and party discipline is omnipresent, the independent mandate of each MEP is still worthy of its name. Every MEP or staff member has probably already met representatives of the other European institutions or of the member states who have mentioned that they cannot take the EP seriously. Yes—but this article argues that, as with many things in life, there is some truth in this overstatement. The initiative of the von der Leyen Commission to make the EU fit for the digital age offers an excellent case study to expound this argument in more detail
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