The European Parliament as a Driving Force of Constitutionalisation
This report analyses the increasing role played by the European Parliament (EP) in the EU decision-making process. In the first part (Sections 2, 3, 4 and 5), it describes how the EP acquired more power in legislation, comitology, in the appointment of the European Commission and in the budgetary field. In the second part (Sections 6 and 7), the report illustrates the EP’s role in two relevant policy fields: economic governance and external trade agreements. The report demonstrates that EP’s formal and informal powers in legislation, comitology, Commission investiture, the budgetary process, economic governance and international agreements have increased strikingly since the Treaty of Rome. This empowerment is partially explained by the concern for democratic legitimacy on the part of some member states’ (and the Commission). To another important part the empowerment may be explained by the fact that treaties frequently contain ambiguous provisions and thus allow room for informal rules to emerge through bargaining specifying the details of treaty provisions.
Study
External author
Adrienne Héritier (Project leader), Catherine Moury, Magnus G. Schoeller, Katharina L. Meissner and Isabel Mota
About this document
Publication type
Keyword
- appointment of members
- budget
- budget policy
- budgetary procedure
- comitology
- coordination of EMU policies
- drafting of EU law
- economic policy
- economic policy
- ECONOMICS
- EU institutions and European civil service
- European Commission
- European construction
- European treaties
- EUROPEAN UNION
- European Union law
- FINANCE
- financial institutions and credit
- interinstitutional relations (EU)
- law of banking
- monetary economics
- powers of the EP
- pre-accession aid
- public finance and budget policy