Explaining the evolving role of national parliaments under the European Semester

Hallerberg, Mark; Marzinotto, Benedicta; Wolff, Guntram B.

doi:10.4324/9781351025621-7

Cited by 10 publications

(24 citation statements)

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“…Although an increasing number of studies have examined how fiscal governance reforms at the European level came about (Ioannou et al, ; Laffan and Schlosser, ) and how to interpret their nature within the framework of EU integration (Dawson, ; Fabbrini, ; Schimmelfennig, ), there has been limited research on how these reforms have actually influenced budget processes and practices in the member states. While some studies have discussed the resulting increased role of the European Commission in EU economic and fiscal governance (Bauer and Becker, ) and the impacts of these reforms on national parliaments (Crum, : Dawson, ; Hallerberg et al, ), no comparative studies have systematically examined the effects of these reforms on the budgetary processes of member states. As the eventual impact of the European fiscal governance reforms depends on how they affect budgetary processes in member states, it is important to understand what kind of domestic changes they have triggered.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Crises and European Fiscal Governance Reforms on the Budgetary Processes of Member States

Raudla

Bur

Keel

2019

J of Common Market Studies

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The goal of this article was to explore how the experience of the crisis and the fiscal governance reforms at the European level have influenced budget processes in member states. Drawing on the Europeanization, fiscal governance and pubic crisis management literature, the article first outlines a series of propositions about the kinds of shifts in the budget process that we would expect to ensue from the crisis experience and European reforms. The empirical part of our article explores the validity of those theoretical conjectures in three different member states: Portugal, Austria and Finland. We found that the crisis experience and European reforms have led to increased centralization of the budgetary process in all three countries. Although we would have expected Austria and Portugal to move closer towards the contracts approach of fiscal governance, this has not happened as the medium-term expenditure frameworks are not viewed as binding.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Crises and European Fiscal Governance Reforms on the Budgetary Processes of Member States

Raudla

Bur

Keel

2019

J of Common Market Studies

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“…Hallerberg et al. () state this most clearly: “An intention of the European Semester was to increase co‐ordination across the Euro Area. Scrutiny of member state‐specific recommendations would put pressure on governments to adopt the recommendations, or at least to respond to them.…”

Section: Executive Dominance Sidelining Of Representative Assembliesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As remarked above, all these authors tend to equate "ownership" with "scrutiny" and expect national parliaments to scrutinize national executives' activities in fulfillment of the agreements entered into since the creation of EMU and reinforced during the Euro crisis. Hallerberg et al (2018) state this most clearly: "An intention of the European Semester was to increase co-ordination across the Euro Area. Scrutiny of member state-specific recommendations would put pressure on governments to adopt the recommendations, or at least to respond to them.…”

Section: Policy Ownership and Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, it has been met with disappointing rates of implementation. The Commission observed that in 2015 only 10 percent of CSRs were fully implemented by the Member States (Maatsch, ), and the rate of implementation has declined since the inception of the ES (Alcidi & Del Gros, ; Hallerberg, Marzinotto & Wolff, ; Verdun & Zeitlin, : 4). Despite flagging the problem of scant national “ownership” of European Semester recommendations, most of the literature mainly addresses the institutional—as opposed to the legitimacy‐related—preconditions for ownership (for an exception see Vanheuverzwijn and Crespy ()).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The European Semester: Democratic Weaknesses as Limits to Learning

Papadopoulos¹,

Piattoni²

2019

European Policy Analysis

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In this contribution to the symposium “What's the problem? Multilevel governance and problem‐solving,” we discuss possible reasons that make difficult for the European Semester to achieve the goals of developing mutual learning and the acquisition of “ownership” over fiscal restraint, budgetary coordination and structural reforms. We underscore the uneasy coupling of a “soft” multilevel governance mode with “hard” forms of governance associated with power politics and domination. We claim that four major problems undermine the Semester's credibility and effectiveness: (1) a democratic deficit resulting from executive dominance, the relative sidelining of parliaments and the marginalization of the public, which confine learning to governmental and administrative circles; (2) the constitutionalization of budgetary policy choices, which constrains the available policy options and preempts reflection and discussion; (3) the “disciplinary logic” imposed through asymmetric intergovernmentalism, which invites noncompliance or bargaining, and (4) the “tough” treatment of debtor Eurozone members outside the Semester.

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“…Concerning national parliaments, their involvement in EU economic governance has improved (see Fromage and van den Brink 2018), albeit the form and degree of involvement in Semester processes varies considerably across Member States. Hallerberg, Marzinotto, and Wolff (2018) stipulate that budgetary committees have become more active while parliaments in Member States outside the eurozone engage more in the monitoring of CSRs' implementation. In total, however, even when parliaments acquired greater oversight rights, they did so 'only in the lower ranges of accountability mechanisms (information, consultation and debate)', whereas only the Latvian parliament acquired hard competencies to approve or amend the Stability Programme (Crum, 2018, p. 275).…”

Section: The Semester and Throughout Legitimacymentioning

confidence: 99%

Building national ownership of the European Semester: the role of European Semester officers

Munta

2019

European Politics and Society

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The European Semester of socio-economic policy coordination has been criticised for poor capacity to induce national ownership of reforms. Reacting to these pressures, the European Commission intensified bilateral and multilateral efforts to increase the legitimacy of the Semester. European Semester officers (ESOs) were sent to Commission's representations in Member States to reinforce policy dialogue. This paper spells out to what extent and how ESOs contribute to national ownership and throughput legitimacy of the European Semester in Member States. The findings suggest that ESOs are an important domestic link in fostering throughput legitimacy of the European semester by way of establishing dialogue with domestic actors and justifying the reasoning behind Commission's initiatives. Conversely, they succeed less in transmitting stakeholders' policy concerns and suggestions to the Commission. ESOs' domestic engagement could, nonetheless, serve as an entry point for Commission's future efforts in building domestic ownership and hence reducing blame-shifting practices.

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Explaining the evolving role of national parliaments under the European Semester

Cited by 10 publications

References 1 publication

The Effects of Crises and European Fiscal Governance Reforms on the Budgetary Processes of Member States

The Effects of Crises and European Fiscal Governance Reforms on the Budgetary Processes of Member States

The European Semester: Democratic Weaknesses as Limits to Learning

Building national ownership of the European Semester: the role of European Semester officers

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