European Parliament

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Parliaments are the central institutions in European systems of representative democracy. Traditionally, the idea that parliament is at the core of democracy has been intertwined with the existence of the independent nation-state. Although international organizations often also have assemblies of national representatives, these are not directly elected and they mainly function as consultative bodies without any legislative powers.

Reflecting the mix of intergovernmental and supranational modes of governance in the European Union (EU), the European Parliament (EP) is directly elected and has considerable influence over policy making, but is deprived of many of the powers that have traditionally been the prerogative of the parliaments at the national level. The EP lacks the right of legislative initiative, it largely holds no formal powers in those policy areas that within the EU are still based on intergovernmental bargaining (such as foreign policy), and it has no influence in policy areas that fall outside of the competence of the EU altogether (such as taxation or the core policies of the welfare state).

However, the Parliament nonetheless possesses significant powers in the EU's political system. The Parliament has enjoyed the right to dismiss the entire commission since its inception in the 1950s, provided that an absolute majority of members and two-thirds of the votes cast support a no-confidence motion. The Maastricht Treaty (signed in 1992) also gave the Parliament the right to approve the entire commission with a simple majority of votes cast. Testing its new powers after the 1994 elections, the chamber first held a vote on Jacques Santer, the European Council's candidate for commission president, who only narrowly escaped defeat. The Parliament then subjected the prospective commissioners to detailed hearings in its committees. Finally, the Parliament gave its approval to the commission. In this way, the Parliament itself established the practice formally introduced by the Amsterdam Treaty (signed in 1997), according to which a commission president must receive the support of the EP before assembling his or her team of commissioners. The Parliament is also consulted on the appointment of members to the Court of Auditors, and the president and board of the European Central Bank.

The legislative influence of the Parliament varies considerably between policy areas. The consultation procedure is the oldest legislative process. Under this procedure, the role of the EP is advisory, that is, it must be heard but its opinions are not binding on the commission or the Council. The Single European Act (SEA, signed in 1986) introduced the cooperation procedure. From 1987 to 1999 it covered a broad set of policy areas, including much of the internal market legislation. The procedure provided the EP with a limited ability to amend or veto commission proposals. SEA also introduced the assent procedure that applies only to a small but important number of issues, such as the incorporation of new member states into the EU and certain international agreements. Under this procedure, the EP cannot change the proposal, but its support is required for the proposal to be adopted. The Maastricht Treaty introduced the codecision procedure. The procedure involves two readings, and if the Council and EP fail to reach an agreement, the matter is referred to a conciliation committee composed of an equal number of Council and EP representatives. The codecision procedure currently applies to most of the issues previously decided by the cooperation procedure. Hence, the extended application of the codecision procedure means that the EU is gradually moving toward a bicameral system, in which the Council represents the states and the EP the peoples of Europe.

In terms of its economic power, the Parliament can amend and veto the annual EU budget. However, its budgetary rights are restricted to the so-called noncompulsory expenditure, which covers approximately half of the EU's budget. Moreover, the Parliament must respect the multiannual financial frameworks (budget ceilings) decided by the national governments. Nevertheless, the Parliament has within these limits forced the Council to accept increases in several policy areas, including education, job training, culture, and social and employment policies.

In the last few decades of the twentieth century and the early years of the twentieth-first century, committees have become increasingly powerful within European national legislatures, both in terms of legislative work and control of the executive. This development is primarily explained by the need to acquire policy expertise through sectoral specialization. The same applies to the Parliament. Committees process all legislative initiatives considered by the EP, and this consideration is based on the work of a rapporteur whose task is to produce a draft report on the proposal.

The EP party system is primarily based on the left–right dimension. The main groups are officially the parliamentary groups of their Euro-parties: social democrats (Party of European Socialists, PES), conservatives/Christian democrats (European People's Party, PP), liberals (European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party), and the greens (European Green Party). PES and EPP have been the two dominant groups, controlling more than half of the seats after each election. A notable discontinuity exists among the smaller groups, which have tended to be rather loose coalitions. The composition of the smaller groups often undergoes significant changes during a five-year electoral term.

The position of the Parliament can be undermined by its failure to connect with European peoples. Direct elections to the Parliament are almost exclusively heralded as a disappointment by both the media and political scientists. Before the first elections held in 1979, a wide range of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and federalists entertained high hopes for the forthcoming unique experiment in supranational democracy. However, their optimistic expectations have largely failed to materialize. Turnout in Euro-elections has steadily fallen since the first elections, and various public opinion surveys suggest that only a small minority of EU citizens possesses even an elementary understanding of the powers and work of the Parliament. In the fifth round of elections in June 1999 only 49.8 percent of 289 million eligible voters bothered to cast their votes. Turnout tends to be high only in those member states with compulsory voting or when elections are held concurrently with elections to the national parliament. Although the initial

expectations regarding turnout were probably unrealistic, the main concern for the EP is the fact that turnout has declined at the same time as the legislative powers of the Parliament have considerably increased.

European Union; Parliamentary Systems; Political Parties.

Corbett, Richard, Francis Jacobs, and Michael Shackleton. The European Parliament, 5th ed. London: J. Harper, 2003.

Hix, Simon, and Roger Scully, eds. "The European Parliament at Fifty." Special Issue of the Journal of Common Market Studies 41 (2003):2.

Judge, David, and David Earnshaw. The European Parliament. London: Palgrave, 2003.

Kreppel, Amie. The European Parliament and the Supranational Party System: A Study of Institutional Development. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

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