The European Parliament’s oversight powers in economic governance: proper scrutiny or a play to the gallery?

ABSTRACT

The European Parliament (EP) was instrumental in acquiring new oversight powers in EU legislation addressing the European debt crisis, such as the economic dialogue. We know little about how Members of the EP (MEPs) use these powers in practice. In this paper, I systematically analyse the practical application of the economic dialogue by focusing on the factors that drive MEPs’ engagement and diligence in the dialogue. Using original data on MEPs’ activity and type of questions asked, I focus on the economic dialogue with EU governments between 2012 and 2016. I show that MEPs are most active when their own government is under scrutiny and MEPs hold key institutional roles. Parliamentary questions are, however, often patchy and unfocused. Only few MEPs ask questions that go to the heart of the economic situation facing the country under scrutiny.

KEYWORDS:

• Crisis
• the economic dialogue
• European Parliament
• hearings
• legislative oversight

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

Maja Kluger Dionigi is Senior Researcher at Think Tank Europa – a Danish institution researching EU politics. Her research focuses on legislative politics in the EU, lobbying, the EU's political dynamics after Brexit, and transparency and accountability in EU decision-making.

ORCID

Maja Kluger Dionigi http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9586-5300

Notes

1 Hungary (29 February 2012), Belgium (18 June 2012), Spain (12 November 2012; 28 January 2014), Greece (13 November 2012; 2 March 2016), Italy (21 January 2013), Slovenia (9 July 2013), Malta (5 December 2013), France (7 May 2015), Cyprus (25 January 2016), and Ireland (8 November 2016). The following hearings were excluded either because they did not relate to the European Semester or the Stability and Growth Pact, or because no record of the hearing could be found: Latvia (concerned the adoption of the Euro), Portugal (recording missing), and the joint meeting with Italy/Germany (concerned their views on EU economic governance rather than the situation in their own country).

2 These include two from the EP’s Economic Governance Support Unit (EGOV), one official from the EP’s Research Service (EPRS), one political group advisor, and three key ECON MEP assistants.

3 A qualitative assessment of the questions asked by individual MEPs shows that the same MEPs do not ask the same questions to ministers from different countries.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 649484.