Multi-arena players in the making? Conceptualizing the role of national parliaments since the Lisbon Treaty

Abstract:

Over the last years, the role of national parliaments (NPs) in the European Union (EU) has been upgraded in several ways, most importantly through the Early Warning System (EWS) and a new role in Treaty revisions established by the Treaty of Lisbon (ToL). These provisions formally turn national legislatures into EU actors in their own right that can act both individually and collectively at the EU level, as well as independently of their national governments. As a result, the EU legislative process now presents them with multiple arenas in which they can be simultaneously active – a perspective so far neglected in the literature.

The aim of this research agenda is therefore threefold: to take stock of the impact of these provisions by contrasting the formal structures and the actual involvement of NPs; to propose a conceptualization of this new role of NPs in EU affairs as ‘multi-arena players’; and to sketch new avenues for research.