The mainstreaming of EU affairs: a challenge for parliamentary administrations

Abstract

Past research has identified a trend towards the bureaucratisation of the parliamentary scrutiny of EU affairs. It highlighted the role of parliamentary staff in selecting relevant issues, advising on subsidiarity and procedures and drafting of opinions and resolutions. However, while administrators clearly play a role, less is known about the Europeanisation of parliamentary administrations. In particular, the impact of the growing Europeanisation of sectoral committees on the Europeanisation of staff is unexplored. This article presents data from a survey of parliamentary administrations in 2021, which shows that the Europeanisation of parliamentary administrations extends beyond the main units in charge of EU affairs and affects sectoral committee staff more generally. At the same time, it reveals that the organisation of staff support for EU affairs varies greatly across the national parliaments depending on the organisation of the political scrutiny, on administrative capacity and on pre-existing units.

Early Warning System from the point of view of the administrative representatives of national parliaments in Brussels

“…In addition, the EWS might have promoted the Europeanisation of some national parliaments, including their administrations (Auel and Neuhold, 2018;Christiansen, Griglio and Lupo, 2021;Christiansen, Högenauer and Neuhold, 2014;Cooper, 2012;Högenauer, 2021). It has been stated that "working parliaments can adapt much more easily to the challenge of scrutinising large numbers of documents under the EWS than speaking parliaments" and, also, that "the increased workload is likely to give rise to a greater involvement of sectoral committees, replacing the past 'monopoly' of European Affairs Committees over EU affairs" (Christiansen, Högenauer and Neuhold, 2014: 127).…”