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The Creation and Empowerment of the European Parliament

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  • Berthold Rittberger

Abstract

Up until now we have lacked a systematic, theoretically guided explanation of why the European Union, as the only system of international governance, contains a powerful representative institution, the European Parliament, and why it has been successively empowered by national governments over the past half century. It is argued that national governments' decisions to transfer sovereignty to a new supranational level of governance triggers an imbalance between procedural and consequentialist legitimacy which political elites are fully aware of. To repair this imbalance, proposals to empower the European Parliament play a prominent though not exclusive role. Three landmark events are analysed to assess the plausibility of the advanced theory: the creation of the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community, the acquisition of budgetary powers (Treaty of Luxembourg, 1970) and of legislative powers through the Single European Act (1986).

Suggested Citation

  • Berthold Rittberger, 2003. "The Creation and Empowerment of the European Parliament," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 203-225, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:41:y:2003:i:2:p:203-225
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-5965.00419
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    Cited by:

    1. Buket Oztas & Amie Kreppel, 2022. "Power or Luck? The Limitations of the European Commission's Agenda Setting Power and Autonomous Policy Influence," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(2), pages 408-426, March.
    2. Harmen Van der Veer & Simon Otjes, 2021. "A House Divided against Itself. The Intra‐institutional Conflict about the Powers of the European Parliament," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(4), pages 822-838, July.
    3. Edoardo Bressanelli & Nicola Chelotti & Matteo Nebbiai, 2023. "The Recovery and Resilience Dialogues: Cheap Talk or Effective Oversight?," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 11(4), pages 297-310.
    4. Thomas Winzen, 2021. "The European Semester and Parliamentary Oversight Institutions Inside and Outside of the Euro Area," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(3), pages 100-111.
    5. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:48:y:2010:i::p:903-921 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Sivek, Martin & Jirásek, Jakub & Kavina, Pavel & Vojnarová, Markéta & Kurková, Tereza & Bašová, Andrea, 2020. "Divorce after hundreds of years of marriage: Prospects for coal mining in the Czech Republic with regard to the European Union," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    7. Berthold Rittberger, 2014. "Integration without Representation? The European Parliament and the Reform of Economic Governance in the EU," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(6), pages 1174-1183, November.
    8. Jürgen Neyer, 2010. "Justice, Not Democracy: Legitimacy in the European Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(4), pages 903-921, September.
    9. Berthold Rittberger, 2003. "Removing conceptual blinders: Under what conditions does the ‘democratic deficit’ affect institutional design decisions?," The Constitutionalism Web-Papers p0023, University of Hamburg, Faculty for Economics and Social Sciences, Department of Social Sciences, Institute of Political Science.
    10. Deters, Henning, 2010. "Legislating on car emissions: What drives standards in EU environmental policy?," TranState Working Papers 142, University of Bremen, Collaborative Research Center 597: Transformations of the State.
    11. repec:lic:licosd:28611 is not listed on IDEAS

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