European Parliament Committee Research Articles

Disalignment in the EU

Abstract European Union (EU) institutions are highly multilingual environments where international communication is very goal-oriented, as they produce and define policies and regulations applied to all member states. This paper aims at exploring how disagreements and conflicting opinions are conveyed in such contexts through the qualitative analysis of debates in recorded meetings of the European Parliament Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. Two meetings from two different parliamentary terms (2014–2019 and 2019–2024) will be analyzed. The study will adopt a pragma-rhetorical approach, drawing on studies on politeness and conversation analysis techniques and focusing especially on the management of Face Threatening Acts in English turns. Attention will also be paid to language choice, codeswitching, and to the international use of English. Results show that conflict and overt disagreements in the data are very rare, with speakers displaying instead careful mitigation of the language used, especially when English is employed.

Seniority and Ideological Proximity? A Longitudinal Analysis of the Appointment of Party Group Coordinators in the European Parliament

AbstractGroup coordinators have a key role in shaping coherent policy agendas in European Parliament (EP) committees and in building consensus about the party line among the group's specialists. They also yield considerable discretion and influence legislative outcomes through their selection of rapporteurs. This article builds and expands on previous research to analyse longitudinally the determinants of group coordinator selection. The EP's gradual empowerment to co‐legislator status has arguably increased the stakes of selecting competent group coordinators. Drawing on a unique dataset that includes all party group coordinators of the European People's Party in seven terms of the EP (1984–2019), the article shows that committee incumbency, coordinator seniority and, to a lesser extent, ideological proximity to the committee contingent influence who becomes a coordinator. The results are robust to replication of analyses on a sample of Socialists and Democrats Members of the European Parliament and to controlling for several factors associated with partisan and distributive theories of committee organisation.

Looking for the ‘Social’ in the European Semester: The Ambiguous ‘Socialisation’ of EU Economic Governance in the European Parliament

The European Semester, the foundation of postcrisis economic governance in the European Union (EU), has become the locus of struggle between the economic and social goals of the EU. The persistent hierarchy of social and economic goals and subsuming of social policies to market-making logic have been at the centre of scholarly and political discussions about the Semester since its inception. This article examines how the European Parliament (EP), the EU’s representative institution, engages with the social/economic relationship within the technocratic and expert-led Semester and what political and ideological alternatives the EP proposes. We ask where and what are the key conflicts within the EP regarding the social dimension of economic governance and how they affect policy outcomes. By discursively exploring the EP reports on the European Semester for the 2014-19 term and analysing the conflicts between political groups and between the EP committees, the article argues that the EP takes an ambiguous and contradictory position on the relationship between economic and social governance and does not provide a real alternative to the status quo.

Expertise, turnover and refreshment within the committees of the European Parliament: as much like Sisyphus pushing the boulder up the mountain as we may think?

ABSTRACT Expertise is a resource, which parliamentary committees organise to support the legislative work of their plenaries. Informational theories posit that expertise is gained from time spent on committee, so how does the committee system of the European Parliament (EP) react to high levels of membership turnover? Using qualitative interview evidence and CV data, this paper explores how expertise is utilised within the EP’s committee system and provides some alternative accounts of its usage. This paper demonstrates that membership turnover, an inevitability of democratic legislatures and perceived as detrimental to committees from the loss of experienced policymakers, can have potentially positive benefits. I find that turnover can not only refresh the observed committees’ institutional relationships but also clear away potential deadwood that is manifested as members who are past their policymaking primes. I argue that an injection of new blood is a resource that EP committees utilise to help maintain relevance.

The key elements of the LIBE Committee’s compromise proposal on e-evidence: a critical overview through a fundamental rights lens

ABSTRACT This article examines the compromise proposal for a Regulation on cross-border access to electronic information in criminal matters the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs voted in favour of in December 2020. It explores the origins of the e-evidence initiative as a whole by placing it in the context of the EU cooperation on counter-terrorism and digitalization strategy. On this basis, it presents the key elements of the compromise proposal with a focus on the envisaged function of the so-called European Production and Preservation Orders. To contribute to the ongoing debate on the suitability of that proposal compared to the one released by the Commission in April 2018, it argues that the LIBE Committee’s proposal fits better into a Union of Security and Freedom, but further improvements are needed to increase the protection of fundamental rights, given the intrusiveness of the suggested investigative measures.

Individual amending activity in the European Parliament committee system

ABSTRACT Individual amendments at the committee stage offer Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) a valuable tool to change legislation, prior to its passage at the plenary stage. And until a recent rule change, they were also one of the last meaningful ways for MEPs to self-select into the EP legislative process. Applying theories of legislative organization, internal positions, and differences in national institutional background, we use novel data to examine why MEPs proposed amendments to select EP committees during a one-year period between October 2015 and 2016. Our findings address a remaining gap on the individual determinants for legislative behavior in the EP, while also highlighting the effects of uneven prestige and contestation found in the EP committee system.

The EU in Search for Stronger Enforcement Rules: Assessing the Proposed Amendments to Trade Enforcement Regulation 654/2014

Abstract Considering the new focus of the European Union (EU) trade policy on strengthening the enforcement of trade rules, the article presents the proposed amendments to the EU Trade Enforcement Regulation 654/2014. It analyzes the EU Commission proposal and the amendments suggested by the European Parliament Committee on International Trade (INTA), in particular with regard to uncooperative third parties and the provision of immediate countermeasures. The amendments will be assessed in view of their legality under World Trade Organization (WTO), Free Trade Agreement (FTA), and general international law and in view of their political implications for the EU’s multilateralist stance. Finally, the opportunity to amend Regulation 654/2014 to use it for the enforcement of FTA trade and sustainable development chapters will be explored. The analysis shows that the shift towards more effective enforcement should be pursued with due care for respecting existing international legal commitments and with more caution to multilateralism.

Some Approaches To The Assessment of Over tourism in Mature Tourist Destinations

The purpose of the article is to analyze approaches to assessing this phenomenon in mature tourist destinations. The article gives a detailed analysis of some publications. The authors focus on five types of problems associated with it: alienated local residents, a degraded tourist experience, overloaded infrastructure, damage to nature, and threat to culture and heritage. Diagnostics was developed which allows determining the level of risk of overcrowding by tourists in destinations. Some shortcomings of this methodology were pointed out in a study conducted by a number of authors (Peeters et al., 2018) for the European Parliament Committee on Transport and Tourism. The study focuses on the main indicators of overtourism. For regions or destinations wishing to assess the risk of overtourism, a checklist has been proposed to evaluate it. The authors of the joint study by the Austrian Hotelier Association (ÖHV) and the Roland Berger global consultancy firm (2018) divided measures to combat overtourism into proactive measures (when destinations plan their activities) and reactive measures (when cities are already experiencing problems with overtourism). In addition, a four-step sustainable tourism development plan has been developed. All authors agree that the lack of reliable statistics makes it difficult to effectively identify the state of overtourism in destinations. Nevertheless, the planning and vigorous activity of all interested parties (business, government, society) will allow weakening the social, economic and environmental consequences of overtourism for mature tourist destinations.

Democratic representation and information in a supranational setting: the case of the European Parliament (1979–2019)

ABSTRACT As the European Parliament (EP) has progressively gained powers in the last decades, the life of the institution has been marked by growing complexity and the quest for increased legitimacy. The management of information has been crucial to both, flowing in a double direction: committee specialization and ever-growing public outreach. These underpin the EP’s efforts to make up for the democratic deficit in the architecture of the European Union (EU). On the one hand, information as input derives legitimacy from efficiency. Committees have been central to handling information in order to achieve greater efficiency in legislative work. In strengthening their position and through their claims for greater transparency in the whole EU architecture, EP Committees have also strengthened the role of the EP in European governance. On the other hand, information as output derives legitimacy from public ownership. Direct elections and ever-growing powers have not automatically increased the legitimacy of the EP. Reaching out directly to citizens, both to inform and to be informed, has become an important battleground for legitimacy in supranational Europe.

Loyal soldiers or seasoned leaders? The selection of committee chairs in the European Parliament

ABSTRACT Although European Parliament committee chairs play a salient role in the legislative process of the EU, we know virtually nothing about their selection and whether policy specialization and the individual attributes of the MEPs matter in the process. This paper draws on a unique longitudinal dataset that includes all full committee members, information on their past committee experience and office in the first seven terms of the EP and data on their parties. Despite the complex proportionality rules that govern the selection of committee chairs in the EP and the interdependence between their distribution and the allocation of other legislative offices, I find that chair seniority shapes the nomination of committee chairs. On the contrary, there is no evidence that European Party Groups use chair selection to reward their most loyal members, while EPG leaders did become chairs more often than regular members in the early terms.

Machine Ethics: The Design and Governance of Ethical AI and Autonomous Systems [Scanning the Issue

The so-called fourth industrial revolution and its economic and societal implications are no longer solely an academic concern, but a matter for political as well as public debate. Characterized as the convergence of robotics, AI, autonomous systems and information technology – or cyberphysical systems – the fourth industrial revolution was the focus of the World Economic Forum, at Davos, in 2016 <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref1" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">[1]</xref> . Also in 2016 the US White House initiated a series of public workshops on artificial intelligence (AI) and the creation of an interagency working group, and the European Parliament Committee for Legal Affairs published a draft report with recommendations to the Commission on Civil Law Rules on Robotics.

The implications of the better regulation agenda for the European Parliament’s inter- and intra-institutional power relations

ABSTRACT How do the European Commission’s and the European Parliament (EP) Secretariat’s better regulation agendas affect the EP’s intra- and inter-institutional relations? Based on document analysis and interviews with members of the EP and EU officials, this article presents four key findings. First, the increase in inter-institutional coordination has strengthened the EP president’s and the chairs’ influence in their respective party groups but contributed to the breakup of the informal grand coalition between the European People’s Party and the Socialists and Democrats. Second, the frequent interaction among these actors has contributed to a teamwork-oriented spirit towards common commitments and their delivery. Third, the enhanced role of the EP Secretariat has contributed to greater competition with the party groups, with both sides vying to influence the discourses in the EP committees. Finally, the increased level of expertise provided by the EP Secretariat has strengthened the EP’s negotiation team in the trilogue negotiations.

Transparency of EU informal trilogues through public feedback in the European Parliament: promise unfulfilled

ABSTRACTSignificant parts of the EU’s legislative process remain shrouded in secrecy. In informal trilogues, representatives of the three main institutions negotiate compromises behind closed doors which are subsequently rubber-stamped in public meetings. While most research on (EU) transparency focuses on the availability of documents, this article investigates how much information on trilogue proceedings is shared with the general public through European Parliament (EP) committee meetings as the only forum to which public account must be rendered during the negotiation process. This article analyses the degree to which trilogues are reported back on, and the quality of feedback provided. Although the EP requires its trilogue negotiators to report back to its committees after each trilogue, the majority of trilogues is not reported back on at all, or not in time. Where feedback is given, its quality is often only poor. The EP thus does not deliver on its promises, which seriously undermines the legitimacy of the EU’s legislative process.

Between cheap talk and epistocracy: The logic of interest group access in the European Parliament's committee hearings

Improving policy deliberation is a central objective for the European Union's institutions. Focusing on the European Parliament's committee hearings as an understudied area of European governance, we aim to understand their role, and their capacity to improve its procedural legitimacy. Building on theoretical work on interest group access and deliberation we argue that hearings can serve three purposes: (i) coordinative; (ii) epistemic; (iii) enhancing public participation. We construct a set of measures and assess an entire population of participants in hearings (2009–14), concentrating on three committees. Our analyses show that hearings serve a hybrid purpose between coordinative and epistemic. At the top end, we observe a core group of gatekeepers representing the dominant constituencies. Simultaneously, research organizations are granted unique access as experts that de‐politicize debates. Theoretically, we contribute to discussions on interest group access while providing an innovative set of tools for its measurement, and the first dataset of its kind.

Putting power into practice: Administrative and political capacity building in the European Parliament's Committee for International Trade

As the formal powers of the European Parliament have increased with successive treaty changes, its committees' administrations have seen a parallel growth. We argue that such administrative capacity is necessary but not sufficient for acting on formal treaty powers. Administrative capacity has to be combined with political capacity in order to muster policy impact in European Union decision‐making. By differentiating between intra‐institutional administrative and inter‐institutional political capacity, we offer a fine‐grained conceptualization of policy capacity while broadening the theoretical and empirical understanding of the European Parliament's administration as an organizational structure of formal and informal working practices, intra‐institutional coordination and inter‐institutional relations. Based on expert interviews, document analysis and participant observation, the case of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership illustrates how societal politicization of a specific policy issue triggered the European Parliament to exploit the latent potential of its post‐Lisbon administrative capacity by transforming it into a more readily deployable political capacity.

(Self-)selection and expertise among decision-makers in the European Parliament

ABSTRACTRapporteurs in the European Parliament (EP) are the most influential members in terms of the legislation they handle. They are appointed by their political groups. In making these appointments, these groups need to accommodate both their collective needs and individual requests.This article explores situations in which the collective need for information is prioritised: the codecision procedure. The data includes allocations over a 10-year period (2004–2014) in three of the most powerful EP committees, as well as key career choices among members.EP groups emphasise policy-specific knowledge. They also pay attention to individual members’ requests for exposure, but only when the expected policy drift is minimal. Harsh selection during the allocation of codecision reports creates pressure to accommodate a greater selection of legislators during other attractive report allocations. Own-initiative reports therefore affect allocation of codecision reports negatively.

From Healthcare to Warfare and Reverse: How Should We Regulate Dual-Use Neurotechnology?

Recent advances in military-funded neurotechnology and novel opportunities for misusing neurodevices show that the problem of dual use is inherent to neuroscience. This paper discusses how the neuroscience community should respond to these dilemmas and delineates a neuroscience-specific biosecurity framework. This neurosecurity framework involves calibrated regulation, (neuro)ethical guidelines, and awareness-raising activities within the scientific community.

European Union Policy-Making on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence: Selected Issues

This article uses the recently issued report on civil law rules on robotics by the European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs as an anchoring point. After a brief overview of the topic’s socio-economical background, it contains an attempt to define and explain artificial intelligence. By examining the role of autonomous machines in the workforce, it gives an overview of the most pressing questions the future of labour might bring. One closely connected issue is the still unanswered question of liability regarding artificially intelligent robots, which will most certainly have to be tackled by future policy makers. Another such open question is a new approach on creativity, where the key phrase own intellectual creation might have to be redefined in order to cover copyrightable works produced by computers. Lastly, the European Parliament’s Report on Robotics calls for a new European Agency for Robotics and Artificial Intelligence is addressed.

Integrating across policy sectors: how the wider public impacts on the drafting process of EU trans-border healthcare

Policy-making in the EU has been depicted as being starkly fragmented: initiatives are drafted in separate Directorates-General of the EU Commission, discussed in specific policy communities and decided upon in sectoral European Parliament Committees and Council formations. At the same time, we see growing numbers of complex policy problems that require cross-sectorally integrated solutions. This article argues that there are good grounds to expect policy-making in the EU Commission to favour fragmented solutions, while diffuse public interests will tend to push for integrated policies. However, it is only under specific constellations that the EU Commission will respond to these interests. The argument will be demonstrated using case study material on three policy instruments that address trans-border healthcare policy. While the Coordination of Social Security Systems Regulation and the Services in the Internal Market Directive favour largely fragmented solutions, the Patient Mobility Directive takes a more integrated approach. Points for practitioners Today, complex policy problems often demand integrated policy solutions that cut across organizational borders and areas of responsibility. At the same time, decision-making is often easier if policy solutions remain fragmented. Internal coordination is an important means for public administrations to reach integrated instead of fragmented policy solutions. Periods with high public attention are more likely to lead to more integrated policy solutions, since policy-makers will seize internal coordination to anticipate the interests of a wider public that is following the policy-making process. Evidence is provided from drafting processes inside the EU Commission on trans-border healthcare acts.

The Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality in the European Parliament: Taking Advantage of Institutional Power Play

The European Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM Committee) is a core actor within the European Union's gender equality policy machinery. Its capacity to act, though, is shaped by the institutional setting within the European Parliament (EP). Using a qualitative approach, this article shows how this particular committee exploits parliamentary rules and routines to maximise its influence. Existing scholarship has suggested that the voluntary nature of its membership implies a weak position within the EP. However, there is evidence to support a contrary interpretation that its voluntary membership assures institutional persistence, thematic inclusion, organisational attention and networked integration.