National Parliamentary Involvement in EU Policy-Making: Questions, Resolutions, and Transposition

This dissertation analyzes how and why national parliaments get involved in policy-making at the EU level. It uses mixed methods to study which tools parliaments use to affect EU policies in certain situations and how these patterns vary across parliaments. I conceive of parliaments and their members as having a ‘parliamentary toolbox’, which contains the different methods of influence that parliaments have over their ministers, national legislation, and now European policy-making. Parliaments vary in the strength of each of the tools available to them and in the political context and situations they face. I show that these differences lead different parliaments to use different tools and strategies to gain influence. In particular, I argue that the there are three main characteristics that distinguish one parliamentary tool from another. These are how institutionalized and formal it is, how public it is, and the number or type of actors required to use it. For example, involvement in transposition is much more institutionalized and formal than the subject matter of questions or resolutions, so parliaments that are relatively strong as compared to their governments and are in a better position to push for procedural changes are the ones that are most likely to use this tool. Resolutions and questions are more public, so they are more likely to be used in situations where there is high public Euroskepticism. Since questions are an individual tool, they are more likely to be used when parties are internally divided about EU politics