The national parliaments of the European Union are those legislatures responsible for each member state of the European Union (EU). They have a certain degree of institutionalised influence which was expanded under the Treaty of Lisbon to include greater ability to scrutinise proposed European Union law.
Relations
Originally, national members of Parliament (MPs) were appointed to the European Parliament (EP) as Member of the European Parliament (MEPs). In 1979 the first direct elections were held, however national MPs still tended to contest these leading to them holding a "dual mandate". As the work load of an MEP increased, the number of MEPs who were also national MPs decreased and since 2009 it has been banned in all member states.
In 1989 MPs from national parliaments and the European Parliament established the Conference of European Community Affairs Committees (COSAC) to maintain contact between national parliaments and the MEPs. COSAC continues to meet every six months and has now gained the right to submit contributions and examine proposals on EU law relating to Justice and Home Affairs. Aside from COSAC, relations between the EP and national parliaments are dealt with by the Conference of Presidents. The EP seeks to keep national parliament's fully informed of the EPs activities and some EP committees regularly invites national MPs to discuss proposals.
However COSAC itself has little institutional structure and is largely leaderless meaning it is difficult for it to exercise its powers. Any concerted response tends to be spontaneous and self organised.
Role and powers
Because the Maastricht Treaty of 1993 expanded the EU's competencies into areas of justice and home affairs, the treaty outlined the importance of exchanges between the European parliament and its national counterparts in a declaration attached to the treaty. This declaration asked national governments to ensure proposals for EU law were passed on to national parliaments with sufficient time for them to be scrutinised by MP and that contacts between these MPs and MEPs, began with COSAC, be stepped up.
This was strengthened under the Treaty of Amsterdam in a protocol stating all European Commission consultation documents be promptly forwarded to national parliaments. They then have a six-week period to discuss legislative proposals, starting from the publication of the proposal to it appearing on the agenda of the Council of the European Union.
The Treaty of Lisbon, in force from 1 December 2009, expanded the role of national parliaments. It sets out a right to information (TEU Article 12, TFEU Articles 70 and 352 and Protocol 1), monitoring of subsidiarity – see below – (TFEU Article 69), scrutinising policy in freedom, justice and security with the ability for a national parliament to veto a proposal (TEFU Articles 81, 85 and 88), taking part in treaty amendment (TEU Article 48) (including blocking a change of voting system to ordinary legislative procedure under the passerelle clauseSelect Committee on European Union Tenth Report: CHAPTER 3: SIMPLIFIED TREATY REVISION AND PASSERELLES, British House of Lords 2008), being involved with enlargement and generally being involved in dialogue with EU institutions (TEU Article 12).
Their power to enforce the principle of subsidiarity is of particular note. The principle is that, unless EU institutions have exclusive power, action will only be taken at a European level if it were to be more effective than acting at a national level. If a national parliament believes this principle has been broken, then this triggers a two-stage procedure: if one-third of national parliaments agree that a proposal breaks the principle, then the commission has to withdraw, amend or maintain it. If the commission maintains its proposal and a majority of parliaments continue to object, then the commission will have to explain its reasons. However it may still continue, as this power does not challenge the legislative role of the Council and European Parliament. The first time the objections-threshold of 1/3 was reached was in 2012 with the Monti II Regulation.
Prior to the Lisbon Treaty's enforcement, COSAC ran tests on the subsidiarity system to test and improve their response time to a question subsidiarity. Tests ended once Lisbon came into force and national parliament's responses to EU legislative proposals have become minimal. Although COSAC is primarily technical, it has been started to become more political especially since the Lisbon Treaty. They have begun to discuss more general political events and foreign policy issues. It is debated whether, in the limited time COSAC meetings have, it should be discussing subjects where it has such limited influence.Cooper, Ian (3 October 2011) European parliaments' body facing 'identity crisis', EU Observer
Defence policy As the Western European Union (WEU) was integrated into the European Union's Common Security and Defence Policy, the European Parliament took on a greater role. However, the Assembly of the Western European Union was retained to hold members to account for military missions. With the European Parliament not seen as sufficient to take over this role, there was some desire to see the WEU's Assembly retained, rather than abolished as the European Parliament wished. However, with the closure of the WEU (and its assembly) in 2010, there were proposals to ensure that EU cooperation between national parliaments took over its role informally through regular meetings of defence-interested national MPs.Statement of the Presidency of the Permanent Council of the WEU on behalf of the High Contracting Parties to the Modified Brussels Treaty , WEU, Defence NewsCold War defence alliance to wind down, AFP The Lisbon Treaty calls for COSAC to establish a body to scrutinise European foreign and defence policy; this has taken the form of the Inter-Parliamentary Conference for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Common Security and Defence Policy.
Differences
There are a number of differences between the national parliaments of member states, owing to the various historical development of each country. 15 states have unicameral parliaments, with the remainders choosing bicameral systems.
Unicameral or lower houses are always directly elected, whereas an upper house may be directly elected (e.g. the Senate of Poland); or indirectly elected, for example, by regional legislatures (e.g. the Federal Council of Austria); or non-elected, but representing certain interest groups (e.g. the National Council of Slovenia).
Furthermore, most states are Parliamentary democracies, hence the executive is drawn from the Parliament. However, in some cases a more presidential system is followed and hence there are separate elections for the head of government and the Parliament, leading to greater discontinuity, yet more independence, between the two branches of government. However, only Cyprus follows a fully presidential system, with France following a semi-presidential system.
Overview Member state Parliament HouseSizeTerm length (years) Electoral threshold Electoral system Candidate selectionLower to upper house size Joint convention Total size Austrian Parliament National Council 183 5 4% Party-list PR (largest remainder) Open list 3.00 Federal Assembly 244 Federal Council 61 5 or 6 N/A Appointment by state parliaments Federal Parliament Chamber of Representatives 150 5 5% Party-list PR (D'Hondt) Open list 2.50 United Chambers 210 Senate 60 5 N/A 50 seats: Indirect election by the community and regional parliaments, based on their own election results 10 seats: Co-option by the remaining senators based on the election results to the Chamber of Representatives National Assembly 240 4 4% Party-list PR (largest remainder) Open list colspan="2" 240 Croatian Parliament 151 4 5% Party-list PR (D'Hondt) Open list colspan="2" 151 House of Representatives 56 5 3.6% Party-list PR (largest remainder) Open list colspan="2" 56 Parliament Chamber of Deputies 200 4 5% Party-list PR (D'Hondt) Open list 2.47 No special name 281 Senate 81 6 N/A Two-round system Folketing 179 4 2% Party-list PR (D'Hondt) Open list colspan="2" 179 Riigikogu 101 4 5% Party-list PR (D'Hondt) Open list colspan="2" 101 Parliament 200 4 — Party-list PR (D'Hondt) Open list colspan="2" 200 Parliament National Assembly 577 5 N/A Two-round system 1.66 Congress of the French Parliament 925 Senate 348 6 — Indirect election by National Assembly members and regional, departmental, and municipal councils Two-round system (constituencies with 3 seats of fewer)Party-list PR (highest averages) (other constituencies) Closed list — Bundestag 630 4 5% Mixed-member PR (Sainte-Laguë) Closed list 10.71 No joint conventions 808 Bundesrat 69 Varies N/A Appointment by state governments Hellenic Parliament 300 4 3% 250 seats: Party-list PR (largest remainder) 50 seats: Majority bonus to the largest party Open list colspan="2" 300 National Assembly 199 4 5% Scorporo (106 D'Hondt / 93 First-past-the-post) Closed list colspan="2" 199 Oireachtas Dáil Éireann 160 5 N/A Single transferable vote 2.67 No special name 220 Seanad Éireann 60 5 N/A Single transferable vote 6 seats: Direct election by graduates of Dublin University and the National University of Ireland43 seats: Indirect election by members of the Dáil and local councils from vocational panels11 seats: Appointment by the Taoiseach Italian Parliament Chamber of Deputies 400 5 3% Parallel voting with mixed single vote (253 largest remainder / 147 first-past-the-post) Closed list 1.95 No special name 605 Senate 205 5 3% 200 seats: Parallel voting with mixed single vote (126 largest remainder / 74 first-past-the-post) Up to 5 seats: Appointed by the president Currently 0: Former presidents ex officio Closed list Saeima 100 4 5% Party-list PR (Sainte-Laguë) Open list colspan="2" 100 Seimas 141 4 5% Parallel voting (70 largest remainder / 71 two-round system) Open list colspan="2" 141 Chamber of Deputies 60 4 — Party-list PR (Hagenbach-Bischoff) Panachage colspan="2" 60 Parliament House of Representatives 67 5 N/A Single transferable vote colspan="2" 67 States General House of Representatives 150 4 0.67% Party-list PR (D'Hondt) Open list 2.00 Verenigde Vergadering 225 Senate 75 4 1.33% Party-list PR (D'Hondt) Indirect election by provincial councils Open list Parliament Sejm 460 4 5% Party-list PR (D'Hondt) Open list 4.60 National Assembly 560 Senate 100 4 N/A First-past-the-post Assembly of the Republic 230 4 — Party-list PR (D'Hondt) Closed list colspan="2" 230 Parliament Chamber of Deputies 330 4 5% Party-list PR (D'Hondt) Closed list 2.43 No special name 466 Senate 136 4 5% Party-list PR (D'Hondt) Closed list National Council of the Slovak Republic 150 4 5% Party-list PR (Hagenbach-Bischoff) Open list colspan="2" 150 Slovenian Parliament National Assembly 90 4 4% 88 seats: Party-list PR (largest remainder)2 seats: Borda count Open list 2.25 No joint conventions 130 National Council 40 5 N/A First-past-the-post Indirect election by local councils (22 seats) and functional constituencies (18 seats) Cortes Generales Congress of Deputies 350 4 3% Party-list PR (D'Hondt) Closed list 1.64 No special name 613 Senate 263 4 N/A 208 seats: Partial block voting 57 seats: Appointment by regional legislatures Riksdag 349 4 4% Party-list PR (Sainte-Laguë) Open list colspan="2" 349
See also European Parliament Member of the European Parliament List of legislatures by country
Notes
References
External links COSAC official website