I PARLAMENTI NAZIONALI NELL’UNIONE EUROPEA. GLI EFFETTI DELL’INTEGRAZIONE SULLA FUNZIONE DI CONTROLLO PARLAMENTARE

The main goal of this thesis is to analyse the participation of national parliaments in the policy and law making processes of the European Union (EU), with a special focus on the Italian case, on important innovations introduced in recent years with the Lisbon Treaty, and the new arrangements in economic governance. In particular, this work aims to assess the role of national parliaments in the formation of the position of the EU Member States’ governments in the decision-making process at the EU level. In other words, the thesis focuses on the internal mechanisms of coordination between national parliaments and governments, and on the parliamentary powers and practices of internal scrutiny in EU affairs. Only a limited assessment of the so-called ‘direct’ power will be provided, whether a similar analysis is useful to better understand the internal scrutiny system in each EU Member State. With regards to the case studies addressed, the thesis is mainly focused on the Italian case. However, a comparative perspective is also offered. Three other cases are analysed: Germany, the United Kingdom and Denmark. These countries have been selected because according to the traditional classification of the COSAC, they are typical examples of a document-based system (Germany and the United Kingdom) – also the Italian case has usually been considered a document-based system – and of a mandating-based system (Denmark). The first chapter reviews the major steps of the historical trajectory which from the beginning of the European integration has been followed with the purpose of addressing the problem of the role of national parliament in the European Community and European Union’s institutional architecture. This trajectory has developed along two levels: one related to the domestic constitutional and institutional settings in the Member States that have progressively introduced specific practices, rules, structures and informal arrangements to help parliaments to cope with the EU affairs; the other one related to the EU law, which has gradually recognised the national parliaments’ informative powers and later, direct powers for interacting with the EU institutions without the mediation of governments. This chapter discusses the main theories and doctrines that have investigated the connection between the role of national parliament in the EU institutional and constitutional architecture and the so-called problem of the ‘democratic deficit’ in the European integration process. Finally, the first chapter presents some important concepts and classifications useful for the comparative analysis of the scrutiny system in different Member States. The second chapter presents the comparative analyses focused on Denmark, Germany and the UK. For each of these countries, a study of the main sources – laws, regulations, inter-institutional arrangements, experimental parliamentary practices, etc. – composing the scrutiny system will be provided, along with a study of the most recent innovations introduced to strengthen the role of parliament in the EU policy making process and improve parliament-government coordination. This chapter also focuses on the dynamic aspects of parliamentary scrutiny. It analyses and assesses the practical functioning of the main instruments, rules and procedures (both formal and informal) of the scrutiny system in each country. Parliamentary procedures and informal practices are especially important and are a crucial source for empirical research because these methods allow national parliaments to react to the innovations produced by evolution at the EU level through an incremental process of learning, adaptation and experimentation. This type of analysis is also useful to identify best practices that can possibly be applied in other constitutional and institutional systems, such as the Italian case. This type of analysis is important to assess the effective transformations in the relationships between parliaments and governments, and whether the former have been able to maintain their influence amid the recent transformations (such as the ones in the area of economic governance that have reinforced the powers of national executives) in the institutional architecture of the European Union. The last two chapters of the thesis are completely devoted to the Italian case. Chapter three critically reviews the Italian scrutiny system on EU affairs from the beginning of the European integration to the last comprehensive reform enacted with Law No. 234 of 2012. This critical review focuses on the specific set of sources that characterises the Italian scrutiny system, which is based on a combination of law provisions, procedures, parliamentary regulations and experimental practices that have been developed to better adapt the system to the innovations enacted at the EU level. Chapter four addresses the Italian scrutiny system at work and analyses its effectiveness, limits and potential. This dynamic analysis is focused on the period after the entry of Law No. 234 of 2012 into force and the empirical study pays special attention to the different phases of the scrutiny system. Different sources are used to perform this empirical analysis. Aside from law provisions, regulations and procedures, other important sources include the documentation of EU affairs offices of the Chamber and Senate, and the databases on the non-legislative activities of the parliamentary bodies involved in the scrutiny process. These sources are combined with some interviews of privileged actors (officials of the Chamber and Senate involved in EU affairs). The information gathered from these interviews has been crucial in integrating the quantitative and qualitative data on the Italian case, which was often incomplete and inadequate. The conclusion briefly reviews the main findings of the thesis with regards to both the conceptual and comparative analyses and the empirical investigation on the Italian case. The major limits and shortcomings affecting the Italian scrutiny system on the EU affairs and that hinder the wider participation of the Italian Parliament in the EU policy making process are highlighted. A set of concrete proposals to address these problems is offered and discussed on the basis of the best practices that emerged from comparative analysis.