Diritto Pubblico Comparato ed Europeo

Sommario

1. Istituzioni parlamentari e democrazia nel processo di integrazione europea. – 2. Le novità del Trattato costituzionale: a) gli elementi di contesto. – 3. (Segue): b) Il Parlamento europeo. – 4. (Segue): c) I Parlamenti nazionali. – 5. I punti critici e le lacune principali del disegno di parlamentarizzazione. – 6. La democrazia e il demos europei. – 7. Conclusioni.

Abstract

The supremacy of Parliament is conceptually linked to the (increased) democratisation and constitutionalisation of the European legal system. The parliamentarisation of the EU takes place both at a national and community level. In the construction of the European Union, national parliaments have played an increasingly marginal role consisting mainly of forms of control over their respective governments. A recurring theme in the last few intergovernmental conferences has therefore been the creation of a new role for national parliaments in European multilevel governance. In the functioning and structure of the institutional set-up of the European Union, the Council and Commission prevail over the Parliament which is the only organ that has a bottomup legitimacy. Both these aspects are dealt with in the draft of the European Constitutional Treaty. According to the latter the European Parliament would have greater powers (especially for approving legislation and budgets) and the national parliaments would be more involved in the decision-making process. Despite this, “parliamentarisation” remains an open question because the very nature of the European Union is ambiguous. Reinforcement of the European Parliament certainly increases the Europeanisation process but goes in exactly the opposite direction to the evolution of consolidated democracies where importance in given to the capability of the government to implement a policy that is responsible and coherent.