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Ever more or ever better scrutiny? Analysing the conditions of effective national parliamentary involvement in EU affairs

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  • Sprungk, Carina

Abstract

Although one of the arguments for involving national parliaments in the European Union (EU) is to make EU politics more accountable, the literature has made few attempts to analyse under which conditions their involvement does have this impact. This article argues that it is not the sheer level of scrutiny activities, but the quality of national parliamentary involvement that contributes to the accountability of EU politics. Drawing on principal-agent-theory, it will show that national parliaments can make a difference if they hold their governments accountable in an EU-specific way. This requires that both the parliamentary majority and the opposition use accountability mechanisms, which are predominantly invoked by the opposition in domestic affairs. The argument will be illustrated in two case studies, which systematically compare the scrutiny of the French Assemblée Nationale (AN) and the German Bundestag (BT) in the decision-making process of the Water Framework Directive (WFD).

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  • Sprungk, Carina, 2010. "Ever more or ever better scrutiny? Analysing the conditions of effective national parliamentary involvement in EU affairs," European Integration online Papers (EIoP), European Community Studies Association Austria (ECSA-A), vol. 14, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:erp:eiopxx:p0195
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    1. Dionyssis G. Dimitrakopoulos, 2001. "Incrementalism and Path Dependence: European Integration and Institutional Change in National Parliaments," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(3), pages 405-422, September.
    2. Grant, Ruth W. & Keohane, Robert O., 2005. "Accountability and Abuses of Power in World Politics," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 99(1), pages 29-43, February.
    3. Maria Kaika, 2003. "The Water Framework Directive: A New Directive for a Changing Social, Political and Economic European Framework," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(3), pages 299-316.
    4. Hansen, Troels B.; Scholl, Bruno, 2002. "Europeanization and Domestic Parliamentary Adaptation A Comparative Analysis of the Bundestag and the House of Commons," European Integration online Papers (EIoP), European Community Studies Association Austria (ECSA-A), vol. 6, September.
    5. Goetz, Klaus H.; Meyer-Sahling, Jan-Hinrik, . "The Europeanisation of national political systems: Parliaments and executives," Living Reviews in European Governance (LREG), Institute for European integration research (EIF).
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    Cited by:

    1. Thomas Winzen, 2013. "European integration and national parliamentary oversight institutions," European Union Politics, , vol. 14(2), pages 297-323, June.

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