National parliaments of the European Union

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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

Further information: Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union

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

Further information: Treaties of the European Union

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 clause), 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 begum 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.

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 see 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. The Lisbon Treaty calls for COSAC to establish a body to scrutinise European foreign and defence policy; however no agreement has been reached.

Differences

Further information: List of European Union member states by political system

  unicameral

  bicameral

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 have a more limited electorate, such as a higher voting as (e.g. the Italian Senate); 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); or non-elected (though by and large appointed by elected officials) as a remnant of a non-democratic political system in earlier times (as in the House of Lords in the United Kingdom).

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.

List

Member state	Parliamentary system	Overall name of legislature
		Lower house (members)	Upper house (members)
Austria	bicameral	Federal Assembly (Bundesversammlung)
		National Council (Nationalrat) (183)	Federal Council (Bundesrat) (62)
Belgium	bicameral	Federal Parliament (Federaal Parlement / Parlement Fédéral / Föderales Parlament)
		Chamber of Representatives (Kamer van Volksvertegenwoordigers / Chambre des Représentants / Abgeordnetenkammer) (150)	Senate (Senaat / Sénat / Senat) (60)
Bulgaria	unicameral	National Assembly (Народно събрание) (240)
Croatia	unicameral	Croatian Parliament (Hrvatski Sabor) (151)
Cyprus	unicameral	House of Representatives (Βουλή των Αντιπροσώπων / Temsilciler Meclisi) (59)
Czech Republic	bicameral	Parliament (Parlament)
		Chamber of Deputies (Poslanecká sněmovna) (200)	Senate (Senát) (81)
Denmark	unicameral	Parliament (Folketinget) (179)
Estonia	unicameral	State Assembly (Riigikogu) (101)
Finland	unicameral	Parliament (Eduskunta / Riksdag) (200)
France	bicameral	Parliament (Parlement) / Congress (Congrès)
		National Assembly (Assemblée nationale) (577)	Senate (Sénat) (348)
Germany	bicameral	—
		Federal Diet (Bundestag) (622)	Federal Council (Bundesrat) (69)
Greece	unicameral	Assembly of the Greeks (Βουλή των Ελλήνων) (300)
Hungary	unicameral	National Assembly (Országgyűlés) (199)
Ireland	bicameral	Oireachtas (National Parliament)
		Dáil Éireann (House of Representatives) (166)	Seanad Éireann (Senate) (60)
Italy	bicameral	Parliament (Parlamento)
		Chamber of Deputies (Camera dei Deputati) (630)	Senate of the Republic (Senato della Repubblica) (315)
Latvia	unicameral	Diet (Saeima) (100)
Lithuania	unicameral	Diet (Seimas) (141)
Luxembourg	unicameral	Chamber of Deputies (Chambre des Députés / Abgeordnetenkammer / Châmber vun Députéirten) (60)
Malta	unicameral	House of Representatives (Kamra tad-Deputati) (69)
The Netherlands	bicameral	States–General (Staten–Generaal)
		Second Chamber (or House of Representatives; Tweede Kamer) (150)	First Chamber (or Senate; Eerste Kamer) (75)
Poland	bicameral	National Assembly (Zgromadzenie Narodowe)
		Diet (Sejm) (460)	Senate (Senat) (100)
Portugal	unicameral	Assembly of the Republic (Assembleia da República) (230)
Romania	bicameral	Parliament (Parlamentul)
		Chamber of Deputies (Camera Deputaţilor) (332)	Senate (Senat) (137)
Slovakia	unicameral	National Council (Národná rada) (150)
Slovenia	bicameral	Parliament (Parlament)
		National Assembly (Državni zbor) (90)	National Council (Državni svet) (40)
Spain	bicameral	General Courts (Cortes Generales)
		Congress of Deputies (Congreso de los Diputados) (350)	Senate (Senado) (259)
Sweden	unicameral	Diet (Riksdagen) (349)
United Kingdom	bicameral	Parliament
		House of Commons (650)	House of Lords (786)

• I^ : Due to Belgium's complex federal structure the Brussels Regional Parliament (Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Parlement / Parlement de la Région de Bruxelles-Capitale) (89, regional assembly), Flemish Parliament (Vlaams Parlement) (124, regional and community assembly), the Walloon Parliament (Parlement wallon) (75, regional assembly), the Parliament of the French Community (Parlement de la Communauté française) (94, community assembly) and the Parliament of the German-speaking Community (Parlament der Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft) (25, community assembly) have competences in federal legislation that affects their interests.
• II^ : The number of Senators will gradually increase to 348 with the 2011 Senate election to reflect changes in French demography.
• III^ : While there is a Federal Assembly (Bundesversammlung), it is not the overall name of the legislature, but simply a joint session of the Federal Diet and the Federal Council, together with other elements, convened solely to elect the President of the Federal Republic of Germany. Though the German legislature is de facto bicameral, there are two separate institutions, rather than two chambers of a single institution.
• IV^ : Technically, the Federal Diet only has 598 members; the additional twenty-four seats are overhang seats resulting from the 2009 election.
• V^ : The Irish names are used in the English-language version of the Constitution of Ireland, and generally in English-language speech and writing in Ireland. The English glosses given are the descriptions in the Constitution.
• VI^ : In addition to the 315 elected members, there are currently seven senators for life (senatore a vita); these include three former Italian presidents, who are ex officio senators for life, as well as four senators appointed by the President "for outstanding patriotic merits in the social, scientific, artistic or literary field". There can only be five appointed senators in addition to the ex officio ones at any one time.
• VII^ : Technically, the House of Representatives only has 65 members; the additional four seats are overhang seats to ensure a majority of MPs for the party which gained the most votes in the 2013 election.
• VIII^ : The name Zgromadzenie Narodowe is only used on the rare occasions when both houses sit together.
• IX^ : In legislation which affects the overseas territory of Gibraltar, its Parliament (17) also has legislative competences.

See also

• European Parliament
• Member of the European Parliament
• List of legislatures by country

External links

• COSAC official website