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This fourth edition of the background reader on the European Semester, prepared by the Economic Governance Support Unit (EGOV) in the Directorate for Economic and Scientific Policies of the European Parliament, provides an overview of publications related to the European Semester from a parliamentary perspective. It aims at further increasing the links between Members of the European Parliament and national Parliaments, notably during inter-parliamentary meetings.

National parliaments possess certain democratic qualities and responsibilities, such as popular legitimacy or scrutiny of the executive power. However, for decades the European Treaties have neither regulated nor envisaged any substantive relations between national parliaments and the European institutions – the role of national parliaments was marginal or overlooked. The situation began to change slowly with the adoption of the Treaty of Maastricht (1992). However, the real change in national parliaments ...

Het Oostelijk Partnerschap van de EU, dat in 2009 werd gelanceerd, bestaat uit zes staten die deel uitmaakten van de voormalige Sovjet-Unie: Armenië, Azerbeidzjan, Georgië, Moldavië, Oekraïne en Belarus. Het werd opgericht om de politieke, sociale en economische hervormingsinspanningen in deze landen te ondersteunen, teneinde democratisering en goed bestuur, energiezekerheid, milieubescherming en economische en sociale ontwikkeling te stimuleren. Op Belarus na maken al deze landen deel uit van de ...

Het gemeenschappelijk veiligheids- en defensiebeleid (GVDB) voorziet in het kader voor politieke en militaire structuren van de EU en militaire en civiele missies en operaties in het buitenland. De integrale EU-strategie van 2016 geeft vorm aan de strategie van het GVDB, terwijl het Verdrag van Lissabon de institutionele aspecten verduidelijkt en de rol van het Europees Parlement versterkt. Het GVDB heeft onlangs grote strategische en operationele wijzigingen ondergaan. De ontwikkeling van het GVDB ...

Marking the 40th anniversary of the start of their dialogue ASEAN and the EU have agreed to work towards establishing a strategic partnership. While trade has always been the cornerstone of the relationship - ASEAN is the EU’s third largest trade partner - the EU’s ambition to expand its role as a global actor demand increased engagement. Both sides face common challenges that can only be addressed through joint responses that involve all stakeholders. To be strategic the partnership must embrace ...

The Treaty of Lisbon has entrusted national parliaments with the responsibility to monitor the respect of the principle of subsidiarity in new EU legislative proposals adopted in areas of non-exclusive EU competence (so-called Early Warning System). The Commission has been the primary interlocutor of parliaments in this framework, although Parliament also receives and follows-up on national parliaments’ reasoned opinions. Despite positive developments visible both at EU and national level, important ...

The mains aims of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) are the promotion of closer cooperation among parliaments of the association of South East Asian nations (ASEAN) member countries and the facilitation of the attainment of the objectives of ASEAN. AIPA is not the Parliament of ASEAN: it has no legislative powers, its resolutions are non-binding, and it does not vote on the budget of ASEAN. However, AIPA is significant in relation to the development of the political context in Southeast ...

The right to petition the European Parliament (EP) was formally set out in the Maastricht Treaty as one of the rights of European Union citizenship. Parliament's predecessors, from the beginnings of the Communities in the 1950s, had already recognised the importance of receiving petitions from citizens, and this has become a major expression of the Parliament's role as direct representative of EU citizens. The EP's practice is based on those of national parliaments, though is more extensive compared ...

In the post-Cold War international system, new actors, including parliaments, emerge and they challenge the traditional dominance by governments of international relations and foreign policy. In democratic societies it is increasingly difficult to sustain the traditional notion that foreign policy is incompatible with democratic decision-making and scrutiny and that state sovereignty in this domain is the exclusive, unquestionable competence of governments, as the perceived sole representative of ...

This study investigates ways to enhance the legitimacy of economic governance in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) without introducing Treaty changes. It suggests changes in the governance framework at both the institutional and economic level. Input-oriented legitimacy can be improved by increasing parliamentary oversight on decisions related to EMU and increasing the accountability of the Eurogroup. Output-oriented legitimacy can be improved by strengthening the ability of EMU to reduce the ...