Suchergebnisse

Rather than becoming obsolete, national parliaments have come back obstinately in the politics of trade. This article develops this proposition and explores its contribution to the idea of twenty first-century trade as contentious market regulation. Contra the Lisbon Treaty, national parliaments' assertion entrenches the role of domestic actors in the EU trade liberalisation policy, and fleshes out its multi-level parliamentary bases. We discuss the role, drivers, and patterns of parliamentary assertion and explore parliamentary assertion using preliminary survey and case study material. We find that the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations represented the tipping-point of parliamentary assertion. Through interpretation and political engagement, national parliaments have forged a role for themselves that was unforeseen in the Lisbon Treaty: weighing in on the policy-making and the ratification processes. In Europe, parliamentary assertion reflected the twin impact of a changing global trade agenda and the centralisation of the EU trade policy regime.

Europeanisation has marginalised national parliaments and their democratic practices leading to a 'de-parliamentarisation' within the EU. The Treaty of Lisbon included substantive provisions designed to improve participation by national parliaments in EU decision-making, the most significant of which is the allocation of subsidiarity monitoring. This was intended to address concerns that national parliaments are peripheral within the EU Polity, and that EU legislation lacks legitimacy amongst its citizens. Protocols 1 and 2 of the Treaty of Lisbon promote a horizontal political dialogue between national parliaments within subsidiarity monitoring, but, experience of the last ten year indicates that this has not improved legislative legitimacy, nor adequately addressed de-parliamentarisation. This article argues that, while the Treaty of Lisbon has enhanced the privileges of national parliaments, they have not been 're-centred' as an influential collective bloc of actors within the EU's institutional framework.