Scrutiny or Complacency? Banking Union in the Bundestag and the Assemblée Nationale

in Politics and Governance (2021), 9(2), 219-229

Editorial: Small States and the ‘Corona Crisis’

in Small States & Territories (2021), 4(1), 3-12

The mainstreaming of EU affairs: a challenge for parliamentary administrations

in Journal of Legislative Studies (2021)

Past research has identified a trend towards the bureaucratisation of the parliamentary scrutiny of EU affairs. It highlighted the role of parliamentary staff in selecting relevant issues, advising on ... [more ▼]

Past research has identified a trend towards the bureaucratisation of the parliamentary scrutiny of EU affairs. It highlighted the role of parliamentary staff in selecting relevant issues, advising on subsidiarity and procedures and drafting of opinions and resolutions. However, while administrators clearly play a role, less is known about the Europeanisation of parliamentary administrations. In particular, the impact of the growing Europeanisation of sectoral committees on the Europeanisation of staff is unexplored. This article presents data from a survey of parliamentary administrations in 2021, which shows that the Europeanisation of parliamentary administrations extends beyond the main units in charge of EU affairs and affects sectoral committee staff more generally. At the same time, it reveals that the organisation of staff support for EU affairs varies greatly across the national parliaments depending on the organisation of the political scrutiny, on administrative capacity and on pre-existing units. [less ▲]

Progress at Snail’s Pace? Regional Involvement and Treaty Changes since 1990

in Abels, Gabriele (Ed.) From Takers to Shapers? Challenges for Regions in a Dynamic EU Polity (2021)

From the mid-1980s, the sub-state level has become increasingly recognized as a political actor in European Union (EU) politics. Starting with the Treaty of Maastricht, a series of EU Treaty changes have ... [more ▼]

From the mid-1980s, the sub-state level has become increasingly recognized as a political actor in European Union (EU) politics. Starting with the Treaty of Maastricht, a series of EU Treaty changes have recognized the democratic role of regions and local authorities and have created consultative mechanisms for them. However, the very regions that pushed for these changes – namely the strong legislative regions like the German Länder and the Belgian regions – became dissatisfied with the innovations of the Treaty of Maastricht almost as soon as they were implemented. As a result, their strategy focused increasingly on limiting transfers of competences to the European level in areas of importance to regions. The aim of this contribution is therefore to examine the evolution of the demands of strong legislative regions and their rights on the European level. It argues that the diversity of European regions has made it difficult to reconcile European integration with the status and functioning of strong legislative regions. [less ▲]

The BENELUX, Regional Groupings and the Dynamics of European Integration: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives

Book published by Brill (2020)

Regional (sub-)groupings have played a significant, but comparatively neglected role in the processes of European integration. The BENELUX and the Nordic Council both offer longstanding models of regional ... [more ▼]

Regional (sub-)groupings have played a significant, but comparatively neglected role in the processes of European integration. The BENELUX and the Nordic Council both offer longstanding models of regional cooperation which have, in various ways, often been cited as examples for the wider European integration project. More recently, both the Visegrád and Baltic states have seen the (re-) emergence of forms of regional cooperation in connection with their accession to and later membership of the European Union. Yet, though often cited, these experiences of (sub-)regional cooperation within the wider European project have been the object of relatively little systematic or comparative study. The aim of the edited volume is to address this gap by bringing together specialists on these regional groupings with a view to providing a fuller understanding of both their historical significance and their possible future role relative to a potentially fragmenting European political landscape. [less ▲]

Luxembourg: History

in Western Europe 2021 (2020)

The 2019 European Parliament Elections in Luxembourg in the Context of Past Elections

E-print/Working paper (2019)

The aim of this article is to analyse the 2019 European election in Luxembourg and to contextualize it by comparing it with past elections. The article presents the party landscape, the electoral campaign ... [more ▼]

The aim of this article is to analyse the 2019 European election in Luxembourg and to contextualize it by comparing it with past elections. The article presents the party landscape, the electoral campaign, the electoral system and the results of the 2019 European election. The results are then analysed in the context of past national and European elections in order to establish whether European elections are second-order elections in Luxembourg, how electoral volatility evolved over time, whether there is a rise in Eurosceptic parties and how the representation of women has evolved since 1979. [less ▲]

Das Vereinigte Königreich und die Europäische Union: Geschichte einer komplexen Beziehung

Article for general public (2019)

The Scrutiny of Brexit in National Parliaments: Germany, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic Compared

in Christiansen, Thomas; Fromage, Diane (Eds.) Brexit and Democracy (2019)

The outcome of the Brexit referendum has led to a highly mediatized battle of power between the British government and parliament over how much influence the latter can exert over the British position in ... [more ▼]

The outcome of the Brexit referendum has led to a highly mediatized battle of power between the British government and parliament over how much influence the latter can exert over the British position in the negotiations with the European Union (EU). At the same time, the role of parliaments in the remaining member states has received virtually no public attention, despite the fact that the stakes are also high for their publics. The aim of our chapter is to shed light on dynamics of parliamentary control of Brexit in the remaining member states through a comparative study of the German, Czech and Luxembourgish parliaments. Each of these member states has one or several key interests at stake in the negotiations, such as exports, the financial sector and future contributions to the EU budget (Germany, Luxembourg), or migration to the UK and the maintenance of EU policies and their budgetary health (Czech Republic). The three cases represent geographical diversity and differently sized countries, to take into account different levels of governmental influence over the Brexit negotiations. The study will focus on the formal powers of parliaments, their actual mobilization and the key dynamics that mark their scrutiny of the Brexit negotiations. [less ▲]

The Politicisation of the European Central Bank and the Bundestag

in Politics and Governance (2019), 7(3),

The European Central Bank (ECB) became one of the key actors during the Eurozone crisis. However, its prominent role was not without controversy. On one hand, the Eurozone was stabilised, no member state ... [more ▼]

The European Central Bank (ECB) became one of the key actors during the Eurozone crisis. However, its prominent role was not without controversy. On one hand, the Eurozone was stabilised, no member state defaulted, and no state had to leave the Euro. On the other hand, the ECB had to stretch its mandate, expand its policy remit, and adopt so-called ‘unconventional’ monetary policies. These attempts to depoliticise political challenges through a technocratic approach reduced the opportunities for democratic contestation, but they also bred frustration that led to politicisation. This article studies to what extent this politicisation affected the perception of the ECB in national parliaments. For this purpose, it studies the extent to which ECB policy has become politicised in the German Bundestag through an analysis of plenary debates from 2005 to 2018. The Bundestag represents an unlikely case for politicisation despite wide-spread criticism of the ECB in the media, as Germany was traditionally attached to creating a highly independent ECB, until recently had no major Eurosceptic right-wing parties, and parliamentary scrutiny of the national central bank is low. However, by studying the salience of ECB policies, the polarisation of opinion in the parliament, as well as the range of actors participating in the debates, this article finds that the ECB’s policies have become politicised and the subject of scrutiny and dissatisfaction. [less ▲]