Parliamentary involvement in EU affairs during treaty negotiations in a historical comparative perspective: the cases of the Austrian, Finnish and Luxembourgish parliaments

Until recently, studies on the Europeanisation of national parliaments mostly tended to focus on the evolution of their institutional capacities rather than on their actual behaviour in EU affairs. This thesis seeks to identify variations in behavioural patterns between the Austrian, Finnish and Luxembourgish legislatures. The historical comparative perspective bases mainly on political and societal similarities between the countries. Based on historical and Sociological Institutionalism, the thesis aims to analyse the evolution and motivations of parliamentary involvement in the field of European affairs over a period running from the negotiations on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe until the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the EMU. By including both institutional and motivational indicators, the objective consists of identifying the extent to which parliamentary involvement in EU matters has been challenged in the framework of EU treaties and intergovernmental treaties on the EMU. We address the following questions: What institutional and motivational factors influenced parliamentary involvement in EU affairs? What parliamentary initiatives have been taken to improve participation in EU affairs? In which direction did institutional change happen and who triggered it? The present thesis bases primarily on qualitative data, i.e. interviews with parliamentarians, civil servants from parliamentary administrations and parliamentary group collaborators. Thereby we aim to produce empirical in-depth knowledge on actual parliamentary behaviour in each studied country. Thus, the assessment of parliamentary involvement in EU affairs through the lenses of parliamentarians’ motivations and their institutional context helps to investigate the parliamentary “black box”.