The open method of co-ordination and national parliaments: further marginalization or new opportunities?

Abstract

Legislatures are central to national democracy. Yet, scholars examining the impact of the EU on national parliaments have concluded that integration undermines domestic legislatures. We call for a more nuanced analysis. We turn to the EU's new forms of governance and, specifically, the OMC. Our analysis reveals a complex picture. On the one hand, with regard to participation, by empowering governments through executive federalism the OMC risks further marginalizing national parliaments. On the other hand, when we consider its output, the OMC provides national legislators with opportunities that the traditional Community method of legislation cannot offer. First, the OMC gives national legislators access to insights and tools for producing successful laws. Second, the OMC gives those legislators grounds for criticizing the policies of government officials. The empirical record suggests that some of these contradictory effects are already at work. The conclusion reflects on whether national parliaments should, or if given the opportunity would in fact, opt to participate in the OMC.

Keywords:

• Democratic representation
• executive federalism
• legislative insights
• national parliaments
• open method of co-ordination
• soft law

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank Jonathan Zeitlin for outstanding advice given to us during a panel at the 15th International Conference of Europeanists in Chicago, April 2006, where we presented an early version of this article. We are also grateful to Katrin Auel, Philipp Kiiver, Oliver Treib, and two anonymous referees for their excellent comments.

Notes

1. See the material available at the homepage of the OMC Forum at the European Union Center of the University of Wisconsin-Madison (http://eucenter.wisc.edu/OMC) and the literature mentioned in Borrás and Greve (2004) and Zeitlin et al. (2005).

2. ‘Joint Contribution on the Role of National Parliaments’. A draft written contribution on the role of NPs by Hubert Haenel and supported by Gisela Stuart, Henrik Dam Kristensen, Kimmo Kiljunen and Sören Lekberg, 17 January 2003.

3. Interestingly, COSAC has not debated parliamentary scrutiny of OMC issues. We are grateful to Morten Knudsen for this information.