The Parliamentary Legitimacy of the European Union: The Role of the States General within the European Union

Abstract

This article presents the state of play in the Netherlands with regard to parliamentary scrutiny in EU decision-making. Although the States General have all in all dealt with EU decision-making fairly actively, this contribution makes clear that Parliament's activity has not been able to offset the increased executive dominance in matters of European integration. The abolition of the consent requirement had immediate negative effects on the information position of Parliament, which is crucial for the attempts by Parliament to counteract the increased executive dominance. Furthermore, the aspect of Parliament's role in the legitimacy of the EU itself is discussed. The 'European instruments', such as the subsidiarity review, the Barroso initiative and the access of parliaments to the European Court of Justice have some general shortcomings. Practice shows, however, that most of these instruments have been used, though with different degrees of intensity and continuity in the two Houses of Parliament and their different parliamentary committees.