This book provides an original argument that rejects the idea of national MPs having but one ‘standard’ mode of representation. It acknowledges the national electoral connection, but considers representation beyond national borders. The author empirically investigates such patterns of representation in MPs’ parliamentary speech-making behavior and their attitudes in Austria, Germany, Ireland and the UK. The book analyzes representative claims in parliamentary debates on the Constitutional Treaty, the Lisbon Treaty and the Eurozone crisis, and relies on qualitative interviews with members of the European affairs and budget committees. It finds a Eurosceptic Europeanization in that national MPs from the Eurosceptic left particularly represent other EU citizens.

This book investigates recent public debates about the European Union (EU) in national parliaments, which have become the primary arena for public debate about the EU. Responding to claims about a politicization of European governance, the author investigates the link between two dimensions of debate – the discursive justification and party political contestation of decision-making in the EU. Embedded in a comparison between the legislatures of four Member States (Austria, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom), the main finding of the book is that generalizable links can be identified between the use of different argumentative frames and patterns of party political polarization. These insights help to clarify the context conditions in which patterns of left/right and government/opposition politics are replaced by more atypical forms of polarization. In a comparative perspective, the author demonstrates that party political factors are a more relevant factor for variation than thematic or country-specific cultural or institutional factors. Case studies include debates on EU Treaty Reform, the Eurozone crisis, and EU enlargement.

This handbook offers a comprehensive picture of the European activities of national parliaments in all 28 member states of the European Union. In the aftermath of the Lisbon Treaty, it assesses the extent to which national legislatures actually matter in European governance.

The 1994 European Elections focused public attention on the perception that representatives put integration above public interest. The contributors here critically assess the diagnosis of the ailment and the solutions that have been canvassed to remedy its causes and consequences.

This book explores the various ways in which citizens are represented in EU policy-making. Most accounts naturally focus on the European Parliament as the prime source of democratic representation. This collection focuses instead on four other channels that are as and often more important: namely, representation via governments, national parliaments, civil society organisations and directly, via referenda. Based on original research, the book combines democratic theory with detailed empirical analysis to provide an innovative, timely and up-to-date evaluation of the nature of representation in the EU. Policy advisors, practitioners and those scholars interested in democracy and the European Union will find this volume to be a valuable resource. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of European Integration.

Bogen forsøger at belyse balancen mellem national parlamentarisk indflydelse og europæisk integration.

Among the criteria for accession to the European Union are democracy and the Rule of Law. In the insightful analysis offered by the author of this book, these concepts - while admirable and even necessary criteria in principle - are almost impossible to measure, and any judgement grounded in them will always be difficult to justify. In his words, 'by including analysis of democracy and the Rule of Law within the field of the EU enlargement law, the Union entered an unstable terrain of vague causal connections and blurred definitions.' Dr Kochenov addresses this problem by proceeding as follows: 1. Outlining EU enlargement law in general, including the principle of conditionality and the role played by the analysis of democracy and the Rule of Law in enlargement preparation; 2. Focusing on the role actually played by the monitoring of democracy and the Rule of Law in ten candidate countries, scrutinizing the way the EU used the legal tools and competences outlined in its enlargement law. The book adopts the EU's own understanding of democracy and the Rule of Law, as derived directly from the substance of the numerous legal and political instruments issued by the Community Institutions and especially the Commission in the course of the pre-accession process. In this way it demonstrates the actual - as opposed to the officially announced - role played by the assessment of democracy and the Rule of Law in the candidate countries in the regulation of enlargement. Many formidable inconsistencies in the application of the conditionality principle are thus laid bare. This leads the author to a series of recommendations on policy and procedure that he demonstrates could be profitably applied to the regulation of current and future accessions, using the Commission's own structure of monitoring pre-accession reforms in the three areas of the legislature, executive, and judiciary in candidate countries. The probity and soundness of these recommendations, firmly grounded as they are in the actual pre-accession monitoring and its consequences for the pre-accession progress of ten Eastern European countries admitted to the EU in 2004 and 2007, will greatly interest policymakers and scholars concerned with the future of European integration.

EU external actions have deep constitutional and institutional implications for EU law and practices. The EU's competences in external relations have continuously increased, including with the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon. As a result, the EU has become ever more active in external relations. This has in turn increased the internal constitutional and institutional effects of EU external actions. This book traces these legal effects and the broader constitutional implications, including potential integrative forces. EU external actions affect the power division between the EU and its Member States and between the different EU institutions; the unity and autonomy of the EU legal order; the role and position of Member States on the international plane; their autonomy; the relationship between national, international and EU law; and the ability of EU citizens to identify who is responsible for a particular action or policy, as well as their legitimate expectation that the EU takes action on their behalf. The chapters demonstrate the interpretation of organizational principles, such as sincere cooperation, subsidiarity, primacy and coherence, changes in the context of external relations; how the choice of an external legal basis rather than an internal legal basis affects the powers of the Union and its Member States; what power shifts happen when policies are determined in international agreements, rather than in internal decision-making; and how EU participation in international dispute settlement mechanisms affects the autonomy and legitimacy of the EU.

The role of national parliaments in EU matters has become an important subject in the debate over the democratic legitimacy of European Union decision-making. Strengthening parliamentary scrutiny and participation rights at both the domestic and the European level is often seen as an effective measure to address the perceived ‘democratic deficit’ of the EU – the reason for affording them a prominent place in the newly introduced ‘Provisions on Democratic Principles’ of the Union (in particular Article 12 TEU). Whether this aim can be met, however, depends crucially on the degree to which, and the manner in which, national parliaments actually make use of their institutional rights. This volume therefore aims at providing a comprehensive overview of the activities of national parliaments in the post-Lisbon Treaty era. This includes the ‘classic’ scrutiny of EU legislation, but also parliamentary involvement in EU foreign policy, the use of new parliamentary participation rights of the Lisbon Treaty (Early Warning System), their role regarding the EU’s response to the Eurozone crisis, and the, so far under-researched, role of parliamentary administrators in scrutiny processes. This book was originally published as a special issue of West European Politics.

A critical assessment of the role of national parliaments in the EU after the Lisbon Treaty and the sovereign debt crisis in the Eurozone, this book examines whether national parliaments have become resigned or resilient actors in these new socio-economic and politico-legal circumstances.