Decision-Making in the European Parliament: Compromising on the Two-Pack

There is a broad consensus among scholars of the European Parliament, that the left-right line of conflict has been the dominant dimension in the EP since 1979 (Hix et al., 2003; Hix et al., 2006, 2009; Hix & Noury, 2009; Hix, 2001; Kreppel & Hix, 2003). A pro-/anti-EU dimension is of secondary importance in parliament, because decision-making over the competences of the EU is the realm of treaties between governments (Mair, 2003). There is little study about the conditions under which different dimensions are important.

This study examines parliamentary decision-making about the two-pack, which moved responsibilities about budgetary decision-making for Eurozone countries to the European level. Our paper shows that compromises between the centre-left (growth) and centre-right (fiscal disicipline) were made at the committee level (Roger 2014). The question about whether the European Union should be responsible for economic governance or whether this infringed the sovereignty of national states was central in the final vote. The left/right dimension dominated the committee debate, the integration dimension the vote.

The article makes use of in-depth interviews with key MEPs, employs textual analysis of committee debates and analyses parliamentary votes in order to determine which lines of conflict matter in which stages of decision-making.