Debating the State of the Union? Comparing Parliamentary Debates on EU Issues in Finland, France, Germany and the United Kingdom

Abstract

Over the last 20 years, the role of national parliaments in European Union (EU) affairs has gained considerable academic attention. Much of the literature has focused on the parliamentary control function and shown that national parliaments are no longer docile lambs willing to be led to the European slaughtering block, but exercise tighter scrutiny of their governments in EU affairs. What tends to be overlooked, however, is that the parliamentary communication function is at least as important in EU politics. Yet while the literature has discussed reasons why members of parliament or political parties may prefer to ‘depoliticise’ European issues by conducting their EU business away from the prying eye of the public, so far we have little empirical data on how parliaments communicate EU politics. This study will therefore provide a comparative analysis of parliamentary debates on EU issues in the UK, Finland, Germany and France.

Keywords::

• national parliaments
• European Union
• plenary debates
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• United Kingdom

Note on Authors

Katrin Auel* is Associate Professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna, Austria, and associate member of the Centre d'études Européennes at Sciences Po, Paris, email: [email protected]; Tapio Raunio is Professor of Political Science at the University of Tampere, Finland, email: [email protected]

Notes

1. In an earlier, and much longer, version of this article, we also examined debates on three specific major EU issues – the European Arrest Warrant, the Services Directive, and the decisions to provide financial aid to Greece through the establishment of the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism in May/June 2010 – in detail (Auel & Raunio, 2012). Owing to space limitations, we had to cut this analysis from the final version.

2. See Auel and Raunio (2012) for a detailed discussion of the institutional and party-related variables.

3. We carried out interviews with selected MPs and parliamentary civil servants in the four countries. We are particularly grateful to Graham Ziegner and Peter Saramo for their generous help regarding the House of Commons and the Eduskunta data.

4. Observatory of National Parliaments after Lisbon (OPAL, opal-europe.org).

5. An overview of the plenary debates of the Assemblée Nationale on EU affairs can be found at http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/13/europe/seances.asp

6. The lists of Opposition Day debates for 1997–2010 and since 2010 can be found at http://www.parliament.uk/site-information/glossary/opposition-days/, last accessed 19 May 2013.