Power without Influence? Explaining the Impact of the EP beyond Legislation

Abstract

The European Parliament (EP) was a clear winner of the Lisbon treaty. Not only was codecision extended to more policy areas, including sensitive aspects of economic governance and immigration policy. Post-Lisbon, the EP’s powers have been strengthened also in a number of non-strictly legislative fields, such as the budgetary procedure, external relations, trade agreements and the UK withdrawal agreement. In all these policy areas, the EP enjoys substantial powers under different institutional rules. In the past, the EP has been able to use these powers ‘beyond legislation’ in a very effective way. It managed, at times, to pull above its formal weight by linking together different decision-making ‘arenas’ where the EP had different powers and/or using discursive strategies emphasizing the Union’s democratic deficit lacking its involvement. In this reading, the EP has been able, over time, to ‘constitutionalise’ its role in the EU political/ legal system. We might therefore expect the EP to use the post-Lisbon powers ‘beyond legislation’ to make the most of the EU’s incomplete contracts or democratic deficit – thus increasing its institutional and policy influence. At the same time, these new powers have occurred in a period where the EU has arguably become more intergovernmental – with a stronger role of the member states and of the European Council. The crises of the EU could have altered the balance of power between the different institutions, strengthening (as in democratic political systems more generally) executive institutions and weakening legislatures. The panel explores these issues by looking, in particular, at the EP’s new powers in the EU budget; the EP’s role (up-to-date) in the Brexit negotiations; and its increasingly more visible role in EU development policy. Expanding the focus beyond law-making, we aim to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the EP’s influence in the (post-Lisbon) EU policy-making.

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