National Parliaments within the Enlarged European Union ― From 'Victims' of Integration to Competitive Actors?

This book presents a wide range of perspectives on the role of national parliaments in EU politics and policy-making. Many accounts of the role of national parliaments portray them as passive victims of European integration. This study instead examines their role within the EU policy-making process, looking at efforts to address perceived democratic and information ‘deficits'.

Bringing together leading scholars in the fields of European studies, public policy analysis, and legislative research, this new volume provides:

• a thorough and wide-ranging synthetic analysis of the position of national parliaments within the EU policy-making structures
• a range of detailed country studies, including for the first time an analysis of the new member state parliaments in Central and Eastern Europe
• an analysis of the significant changes to the position of national parliaments brought about by the recent Convention process and the provisions of the EU’s Constitutional Treaty.

Making an important contribution to an emerging comparative literature on the parliamentary dimension to EU public policy-making, National Parliaments within the Enlarged European Union will interest students and researchers in the fields of European integration, EU politics, and public policy analysis.

John O’Brennan is Lecturer in European Politics in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Limerick, Ireland.

Tapio Raunio is Professor of Political Science at the University of Tampere, Finland.