192 The Europeanization of National Parliamentary Agendas

Analyzing the Evolution of Policy Agendas in Europe and North America
Thursday, June 27, 2013: 9:00 AM-10:45 AM
2.21 (Binnengasthuis)
Shorttracked by LOC, Montesquieu Institute

As the supreme political institutions in representative democracies, parliaments have the powers to set the stage for major policy decisions affecting the country. The range of decisions of this kind is enormous, and parliaments usually limit their scope of activity as the political parties represented in them select which problems will be given attention and which are ignored.  Parliaments in European countries long did not pay much explicit attention to matters of European integration. They left initiatives to governments, and followed in their steps. In recent years, however, Europeanization became a topic of increasing attention and, at times, politicization. Eurosceptic parties entered the national parliaments, and traditional parties slowly adapted to a changing public mood that became less supportive and sometimes even hostile to the transfer of national policy making competencies to the EU. This panel addresses the ways in which changing conditions of public mood and parliamentary spirit for European integration have affected parliamentary behavior on matters where they used to be silent or resilient. Papers in this panel consider whether in recent times the ways of legislative scrutiny, control activity and expressive politics in parliaments on matters related to European integration have evolved into a more confrontational type.

Chairs:
Lars Maeder and Arco Timmermans
Discussant:
Christine Arnold
Parliamentary Attention to EU Issues in Spain
Anna Maria Palau, University of Barcelona
How the Legislature in Luxembourg Deals with Europeanization
Astrid Spreitzer, University of Luxembourg; Patrick Dumont, University of Luxembourg