National Parliaments and Delegated Rulemaking

This paper deals with the unexpected role claimed by national parliaments with regard to control of EU executive acts within the new mechanism of Early Warning System (EWS). In this scrutiny at a very early stage national parliaments assess the delegations to adopt a delegated or implementing act (Arts 290 and 291 TFEU) which are foreseen by a draft legislative act forwarded to parliaments by the European Commission.

The necessity to discuss this new activity of national parliaments seems even more pressing, since in the face of an increased use of the EWS to address the delegations for EU executive acts, the Danish Folketing boldly proposed that national parliaments should be empowered to initiate a revocation of the delegation by the EU Legislator. The aim of this paper is hence twofold. First, this paper offers an overview and assesses the concerns of national parliaments on delegations encompassed by Commission proposals. For this purpose the paper conducts a case study of the Commission proposal on the Tobacco Products Directive. Second, this paper explores how and to what extent national parliaments scrutinize already adopted delegated and implemented acts. In consequence, the paper evaluates possible avenues of control of EU executive acts and the effectiveness of this control.