The Palgrave Handbook of National Parliaments and the European Union

The Palgrave Handbook of National Parliaments and the European Union offers a comprehensive picture of the European activities of national parliaments in all the 28 member states of the EU. In the aftermath of the Lisbon Treaty, it questions whether national legislatures do matter in European governance. With contributions from both academics and practitioners, this volume integrates the latest constitutional and legal developments as well as the consequences of the economic crisis in every country in the EU. Special emphasis is also placed on the actual parliamentary practices relating to European affairs. In addition, the volume includes some cross-sectional entries on key issues such as parliamentary administration and inter-parliamentary cooperation. By covering a large number of aspects and cases, this collection provides a unique source for assessing the degree of actual parliamentary and democratic control of the European governance at the domestic level.

Claudia Hefftler is a Research Associate and PhD student at the Jean Monnet Chair, University of Cologne, Germany where she is involved in the OPAL project (Observatory of Parliaments after the Lisbon Treaty). She has studied political science, history and Portuguese philology. She has published on national parliaments with a focus on their participation in the Early Warning Mechanism and their control over European Council meetings.

Christine Neuhold holds the Special Chair of EU Democratic Governance at the Department of Political Science, Maastricht University, the Netherlands. A political scientist with a PhD from the University of Vienna, she has published widely on national parliaments and the EP, currently focusing on unelected officials in parliaments.

Olivier Rozenberg is Associate Professor at Sciences Po, Paris, France in the Centre d'etudes europeennes. He specialises in legislative studies and European studies. He has published a number of collective books, including Parliamentary Roles in Modern Legislatures (2012) and The Roles and Function of Parliamentary Questions (2012).

Julie Smith is Director of the European Centre in the Department of Politics and International Studies, Cambridge University, UK and Fellow in Politics at Robinson College, Cambridge. Her research interests include parliaments and budgetary politics, European elections and the UK's relations with the EU.