The relationship between national parliaments and the European Parliament remains contested in the area of economic governance

The Fiscal Compact, which was signed by 25 of the EU’s member states in 2012, foresaw the creation of an inter-parliamentary conference to enable national parliaments to discuss major issues of economic and financial governance. The third meeting of this ‘Inter-parliamentary Conference for Economic and Financial Governance’ will be held on 29 and 30 September. Valentin Kreilinger writes that diverging views on the internal organisation of the conference have so far prevented it from meeting the aims originally envisaged in the Fiscal Compact Treaty

The ‘euro toolkit’: how to save Schengen in four key steps

The European Commission presented proposals on 15 December related to the Schengen area and the Frontex border agency, with the European Council due to meet on 17-18 December to discuss the proposals and how to resolve the ongoing refugee crisis. In light of the proposed reforms, Valentin Kreilinger writes that Europe’s handling of the Eurozone crisis offers four key insights for attempts to manage the current crisis which, if implemented correctly, could help remedy the design flaws contained within the Schengen system

Economic surveillance and coordination mechanisms won’t work without proper scrutiny by national parliaments

The principle of strengthening national parliaments in the EU’s legislative process has attracted substantial attention in recent years. Perhaps more important, however, is their role in economic governance. After the European Council of 17-18 March endorsed the policy priority areas of the Annual Growth Survey, Valentin Kreilinger writes that national parliaments can play a key role in scrutinising the economic policy surveillance and coordination of the so called ‘European Semester’

David Cameron’s proposal to give national parliaments a ‘red card’ over EU laws is deeply flawed

David Cameron has sent a letter to the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, outlining the key elements that he will seek in a renegotiation of the UK’s EU membership. As Valentin Kreilinger writes, one of Cameron’s demands is to strengthen the role of national parliaments in the EU’s legislative process, with the provision of a so called ‘red card’ mechanism that would allow groups of parliaments to effectively veto new proposals. He argues that this system would be likely to create more problems than it would solve and could actively work against the UK’s interests by preventing the liberalisation of Europe’s services sector and reforms aimed at boosting competitiveness

A Watchdog for Europe's Policemen: The Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group for Europol

The Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group for Europol (JPSG) will meet for the first time in Brussels in the autumn of 2017. Its creation was agreed by the EU Speakers Conference (the Presidents of the EU’s national parliaments and the European Parliament) in April 2017. With this decision, the idea of a body to ensure parliamentary scrutiny of the European Police Office (Europol) finally manifests itself in the JPSG. In the emerging Security Union that the EU seeks to create, also in reaction to recent terror attacks, the responsible actors at the EU level must be subject to parliamentary scrutiny. According to Article 51 of the new Europol Regulation No. 2016/794, the JPSG will play an essential role to “politically monitor Europol’s activities in fulfilling its mission, including as regards the impact of those activities on the fundamental rights and freedoms of natural persons.” In its first part, the Policy Paper examines the political difficulties to move forward with respect to intentions and provisions for enhancing the parliamentary scrutiny over Europol. The in-depth analysis of the positions of national parliaments and EU institutions is based on reports, resolutions, publicly available minutes and amendments to draft conclusions as well as other texts. This paper evaluates the agreement on the JPSG for Europol as promising. The second part of the Policy Paper presents concrete proposals in order to make the JPSG work efficiently: The JPSG should complement the existing scrutiny of Europol by the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs in the European Parliament and it should adopt ambitious Rules of Procedure at its first meeting in order to clarify and fix its internal functioning. The new body could subsequently become a blueprint for interparliamentary scrutiny in the EU

Efforts to increase inter-parliamentary cooperation in the EU are progressing at a snail’s pace

The principle of increasing the role of national parliaments in the EU’s legislative process has been promoted by several political actors, with the Treaty of Lisbon introducing a so called ‘yellow card’ system under which national parliaments can force the European Commission to review a legislative proposal. Valentin Kreilinger writes on recent decisions and initiatives related to the role of national parliaments in economic governance, international affairs and EU legislation. He argues that while national parliaments and the European Parliament do cooperate with each other, attempts to strengthen this process have only made very slow progress

EU member states are mired in internal squabbling over the COVID-19 recovery fund – and more difficulties lie ahead

In December, EU leaders reached agreement on a €750 billion pandemic recovery fund, financed by joint borrowing. However, as Valentin Kreilinger writes, the implementation of the fund has already encountered difficulties in the EU’s three largest states, with more trouble potentially on the horizon

Europawahl 2009 : Erwartungen – Programme – Visionen

Zwischen 4. und 7. Juni 2009 sind fast eine halbe Milliarde Unionsbürgerinnen und -bürger dazu aufgerufen, ein neues Europäisches Parlament zu wählen. Doch auch 30 Jahre nach der ersten Direktwahl hat sich das Europäische Parlament nicht als politischer Bezugspunkt der Bürger etabliert. Seit 1979 sinkt die Wahlbeteiligung kontinuierlich, 2004 gingen durchschnittlich nur 45,6 Prozent der EU-Bürger zur Wahl. Die Debatte um das Demokratiedefizit der Europäischen Union nimmt gerade an diesem Punkt immer wieder Anstoß

The 2014 European Parliament elections will see populist parties make gains, but they will remain a battle for control between mainstream parties

European Parliament elections are due to take place in May 2014. Yves Bertoncini and Valentin Kreilinger write that while populist parties are likely to increase their numbers in the parliament, the major centre-left and centre-right parties will once again come out ahead, with a number of possible coalitions emerging from what is currently an open field. They argue that the election will come down to eight ‘swing states’ which have the largest populations and the greatest number of seats in the parliament