Towards Tighter Scrutiny? National Legislatures in the New EU Constitution

Abstract

This paper analyses the impact of the EU's draft constitution on the parliaments of its member states. The Laeken declaration singled out the role of national parliaments as one of the topics to be discussed by the Convention, and indeed domestic legislatures featured prominently in the debates of the Convention. The main argument of the paper is that the new constitution will strengthen the position of the national legislatures in the EU policy process. Particularly important in this respect are the improved access to EU documents and the increased openness of the Council, both of which improve the capacity of national parliaments to control their governments. National parliaments were also given a collective role in overseeing the implementation of the subsidiarity principle, but the effects of this mechanism will probably remain modest. While national MPs have thus stronger constitutional rights to control their governments, the increased use of the open method of coordination and other forms of intergovernmental policy coordination at least partially undermine these positive developments. The paper concludes by proposing a set of reforms that would enable national legislatures to make a stronger impact on EU politics.