Executive-legislative (im)balance in the European Union


Book Description

"Has executive predominance in EU-related matters disappeared ten years after the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty? How have executive-legislative relations in the EU evolved over a crisis-ridden decade, from the financial and migration crises, to Brexit or the latest covid-19 pandemic? The Lisbon Treaty could be expected to lead to the re-balancing of powers in favour of parliaments, for it significantly enhanced the roles of both the European Parliament and national parliaments. A decade later, the contributions to this edited volume examine, for the first time in such an extensive breadth and from a multi-level and cross-policy perspective, whether this has actually materialised. They highlight that diverging tendencies may be observed, and that important variations over time have occurred, depending particularly on the occurrence of crises. As stated in the fascinating epilogue by Peter Lindseth (University of Connecticut School of Law), this is an "admirably coherent collective volume, whose contributions provide an excellent overview of key aspects of executive-legislative relations in the European system since the Treaty of Lisbon". This edited volume will hence be of interest to both academics and practitioners interested in future reforms designed at the European and national levels to improve the EU's democratic quality"




The European Parliament and Delegated Legislation


Book Description

This book revisits the Treaty of Lisbon's promise to further parliamentarize the EU's functioning by looking into the Treaty-law framework governing the delegation of legislative power in the EU. In this field, the Lisbon Treaty formally greatly strengthened the position of the European Parliament vis-à-vis both the European Commission and the Council. The book explores whether Parliament's formally reinforced role is reflected in the actual balance of powers in the area of delegated legislation and executive rule-making. It does so by assessing how both the law and practice of decision-making at the legislative level, looking at specific case studies, and the sub-legislative level, examining the scrutiny over delegated legislation, has crystallized in the ten years following the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. This rigorous study gives a fascinating insight into one of the most significant developments in European parliamentary law-making, which EU constitutional lawyers will find required reading.




Executive-legislative (Im)balance in the European Union


Book Description

Ten years after the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, has executive predominance in EU-related matters disappeared? How have executive-legislative relations in the EU evolved over a crisis-ridden decade, from the financial and migration crises, to Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic? The Lisbon Treaty could be expected to lead to the re-balancing of powers in favour of parliaments, for it significantly enhanced the roles of both the European Parliament and national parliaments. A decade later the contributions to this edited volume examine – for the first time in such an extensive breadth and from a multi-level and cross-policy perspective – whether this has actually materialised. They highlight that diverging tendencies may be observed, and that important variations over time have occurred, depending particularly on the occurrence of crises. As stated in the fascinating epilogue by Peter Lindseth (University of Connecticut School of Law), this is an 'admirably coherent collective volume, whose contributions provide an excellent overview of key aspects of executive-legislative relations in the European system since the Treaty of Lisbon'. This edited volume will hence be of interest to both academics and practitioners interested in future reforms designed at the European and national levels to improve the EU's democratic quality.




The Europeanisation of Parliamentary Democracy


Book Description

This groundbreaking new study shows how the process of creating an ever closer European Union affects not only the policy-making, but also the politics and polity of the Member States. Empirical studies on the domestic impact of Europe identified different forms of Europeanization due to alternative mechanisms of internalising the new norms and rules. Although many studies have since focused on the question of how, to what degree, in what direction, at what pace, and at what point of time "Europe matters", the Europeanization of one particular structural determinant of the Member States, namely the system of parliamentary democracy, is still under-researched. This is all the more astonishing as democracy in the EU depends to a large extent on the democratic legitimacy of procedures at the national level. This volume addresses the key issue of the Europeanisation of parliamentary systems and thus contributes to the ongoing debate on the parliamentary dimension of the European Union. It brings together theoretical concepts as well as cross-national empirical research on the Europeanization of the member states’ parliamentary systems, focussing on different elements such as structures, procedures and decision-making processes as well as on the question how parliamentarians as actors react to these changes and actively shape this Europeanization. This book was previously published as a special issue of The Journal of Legislative Studies.




Parliamentary Oversight of the Executives


Book Description

Oversight of executives has always been a key function of parliaments and one that is central to developing the relationship between the executive and legislative branches of government. However, in reality governments are taking a more pronounced role in controlling legislation, diluting the influence of parliament. This book plots this trend in parliaments across Europe, to illustrate points of convergence and divergence. In so doing, it suggest tools and methods that parliaments can develop to bolster their crucial oversight role.




Controlling the EU Executive?


Book Description

This volume investigates inter-institutional conflicts in the EU system, specifically over delegation of rule-making power to the European Commission.




Rulemaking by the European Commission


Book Description

Examining the constitutional and procedural arrangements that enable the European Commission to adopt general and legally binding rules, this book explores how the system works in practice, subsequent to the sweeping reforms recently implemented.




Parliamentary Oversight of the Executives


Book Description

"Oversight of executives has always been a key function of parliaments and one which is central to developing the relationship between the executive and legislative branches of government. However, in reality governments are taking a more pronounced role in controlling legislation, diluting the influence of parliament. This book plots this trend in parliaments across Europe, to illustrate points of convergence and divergence. In so doing, it suggest tools and methods that parliaments can develop to bolster their crucial oversight role"--




Executive-legislative (Im)balance in the European Union


Book Description

Introduction : executive-legislative (im)balance in the European Union / Diane Fromage and Anna Herranz-Surrallés -- Recalibration of executive -- legislative relations in the European Union : strategies inspired by the trilemma of democracy, sovereignty and integration / Peter Bursens -- The anticipation function of interinstitutional agreements : a smooth mechanism to recalibrate executive-legislative relations / Marco Urban -- Divided accountability of the council and the European council : the challenge of collective parliamentary oversight / Elena Griglio -- Executive-legislative relations and delegated powers in the European Union : continuous recalibration? / Thomas Christiansen and Sabina Lange -- The implementation of EU law in member states and its impact on the relationship between parliaments and governments / Diane Fromage -- National strategies of EU law transposition : does the distinction between legislative and executive measures matter in practice? / Robert Zbíral and Jan Grinc -- Failed constitutional reforms and silent constitutional transformations in executive-legislative relations : the case of Italy / Nicola Lupo -- Short-lived reparliamentarisation? A year of eff orts to 'take back control' from the executive in the Brexit House of Commons / Kathryn Wright -- How the debates on trade policy helped rebalance the executive-legislative relationship in favour of the European Parliament / Péter Márton -- A temporary recalibration of executive-legislative relations on EU trade agreements? The case of national and regional parliaments on CETA and TTIP / Cristina Fasone and Maria Romaniello -- Exploring interaction between national parliaments and the European Parliament in EU trade policy / Katharina L Meissner and Guri Rosén -- The European Parliament's role in the operation of trade agreements : parliamentary control and executive -- legislative balance in external action / Wolfgang Weiss -- Representative democracy in financial crisis governance : new challenges in the EU multi-level system / Claudia Wiesner -- Towards the 'normalisation' of security ? Executive -- legislative relations in an expanding EU security and defence policy / Anna Herranz-Surrallés -- The balance of powers and the EU's common foreign and security policy / Graham Butler -- All buzz, no bite : the parliamentarisation of the area of freedom, security and justice / Angela Tacea -- Epilogue : executives, legislatures and the semantics of EU Public Law : a pandemic-inflected perspective / Peter L Lindseth.




Legislative Control Over Executive Law-Making


Book Description

Most EU legislation consists of executive acts of the European Commission. The Lisbon Treaty introduced a new type of EU executive legislation - delegated acts, which give the European Parliament formal powers of legislative scrutiny equal to those of the EU Council. Thus, the use of delegated acts could reinforce the institutional balance of power and help reduce the EU's democratic deficit. We studied the situations when the Parliament and the Council agreed to grant the Commission the right to adopt delegated acts, considering the preference constellations of legislative and executive actors and legislative complexity. Using a novel dataset on post-Lisbon legislation, we found that delegated acts are more likely in cases of high legislative complexity and when the Council sees the Parliament as an ally vis-à-vis the Commission. However, the European Parliament gets no say over executive measures when doing so could shift policy outcomes away from the Council's preferences, raising doubts about the effectiveness of parliamentary control.