Suchergebnisse

This thesis describes the parliamentary scrutiny system of the Dutch Government in the European decision-making process. More specifically, this study concerns the instruments of the British parliamentary scrutiny reserve and the Danish and Austrian mandating systems, and the added value that such instruments might have for the Netherlands. The main lesson to be learned from the British scrutiny reserve is that both the Government and Parliament are encouraged to become actively involved at an early stage of the European decision-making process. The system also ensures structural provision of information throughout the European decision-making process. In the Netherlands such structural information agreements between Parliament and the Government do not exist. The introduction of a parliamentary scrutiny reserve would solve this problem. The instrument of the parliamentary reserve that was introduced in the Netherlands when the Lisbon Treaty entered into force is much more limited than the British scrutiny reserve. The Dutch parliamentary reserve lacks the most essential aspect that makes the scrutiny reserve a valuable instrument. It is not linked to Government information and therefore does not stimulate as much dialogue between the Government and Parliament from the earliest stages of the European decision-making process as the British scrutiny reserve does. The Danish mandating system adds little to the Dutch Parliament's existing instruments to scrutinize the Government in the EU decision-making process. It may be doubted whether a mandating system would be suitable in a bicameral system such as the Dutch one. The Tweede Kamer (the Dutch House of Representatives) and the Eerste Kamer (the Dutch Senate) may occasionally give contradictory instructions. Furthermore, the fact that the presentation of the mandates often takes place at a later stage of the European decision-making process can be seen as a major drawback of the Danish mandating system. Despite the fact that the system ensures that Parliament is ...