Friday, March 14, 2014
Cabinet (Omni Shoreham)
The Treaty of Lisbon recognized, for the first time, the contribution of national parliaments to the democratic governance of the European Union. In addition to symbolic recognition, the right to veto the use of passerelle clauses and the task of monitoring certain policy areas, national parliaments can now control the application of the principle of subsidiarity to new legislative proposals. Regional parliaments, by contrast, have come as an afterthought and are only mentioned in passing – as an actor that is to be consulted by the respective national parliaments. Similarly, in the literature, there is a mismatch between the vibrant and extensive debate on the role of national parliaments in EU affairs, and the relative silence on the role of regional parliaments. This raises two questions: In light of the weaker participation rights, to what extent can and do regional parliaments participate in EU policy-making? Secondly, what is their potential to fulfill a distinct legitimizing function? The rule that national parliaments should incorporate the views of regional parliaments into their opinions suggests that the views of regional parliaments are compatible with those of the national parliament. By contrast, on the basis of a documentary analysis, this paper argues that regional parliaments have a unique take on EU politics that allows them to play a representative and scrutiny role that is distinct from that of national parliaments.
