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Strengthening European Union Democratic Accountability Through National and Treaty-Based Pre-Legislative Controls

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Abstract

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This article considers whether greater accountability for EU supranational decision-making can be achieved through a combination of member states' legislative processes and EU treaty-based mechanisms. The EU is formed by member states' national consent through treaty ratification and a system of domestic pre-legislative controls on consent—parliamentary approval, public consultation and referendum—which operates to limit the nature and extent of EU law. Using the UK as an example to compare with other member states, the article contends that such domestic controls are prerequisites to national incorporation of EU law and strengthen democratic accountability. Consent alone, however, does not provide an adequate basis for accountability of supranational decisions; EU constitutional principles of citizenship, democracy, and political rights illustrate how the EU fulfills a role as protector of rights. The article further argues that the EU's protector role represents partial legitimacy and accountability for supranational decisions. Greater legitimacy and accountability derives from national parliaments' pre-legislative controls under EU law—scrutinizing legislation, monitoring subsidiarity, and exercising veto powers. The article concludes that if these controls are exercised properly, they represent powerful accountability mechanisms.

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Articles
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Copyright © 2015 by German Law Journal GbR 

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135 See TEU art. 10(3).Google Scholar

136 See id. art. 11(2).Google Scholar

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140 The Charter art. 41.Google Scholar

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153 See TEU art. 17(1).Google Scholar

154 See TFEU art. 25.Google Scholar

155 See TEU art. 17(2).Google Scholar

156 See 2013 Article 25 Report, supra note 125, at 6.Google Scholar

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158 Id. Google Scholar

159 Id. Google Scholar

160 See European Commission, On the Application of Directive 94/80/EC on the Right to Vote and to Stand as a Candidate in Municipal Elections by Citizens of the Union Residing in a Member State of Which They Are Not Nationals, at 5, COM (2012) 99 final (Mar. 9, 2012).Google Scholar

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162 See Consular Protection for European Union Citizens Abroad, European Commission, available at http://ec.europa.eu/consularprotection/en/content/home (last visited Aug. 3, 2015).Google Scholar

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164 See id. art. 18.Google Scholar

165 See id. art. 19(1).Google Scholar

166 See id. art. 21(2).Google Scholar

167 See id. art. 46. See also id. arts. 21(3), 48 (enumerating Council powers for social security).Google Scholar

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169 See Council Directive No. 2013/1/EU, of 20 December 2012 Amending Directive 93/109/EC as Regards Certain Detailed Arrangements for the Exercise of the Right to Stand as a Candidate in Elections to the European Parliament for Citizens of the Union Residing in a Member State of Which They Are Not Nationals, 2012 O.J. (L 26), 27.Google Scholar

170 See TFEU art. 23.Google Scholar

171 See Commission Regulation No. 211/2011, 2011 O.J. (L 65).Google Scholar

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176 See TEU art. 12.Google Scholar

177 See id. protocol no. 1.Google Scholar

178 See id. art. 12(a).Google Scholar

179 See id. protocol no. 1., arts. 1, 2, 5, 7.Google Scholar

180 For a “holistic approach” to EU lawmaking and implementation involving active and responsible involvement by national institutions see Piqani, supra note 8, at 493. National court decisions have called for greater involvement of legislatures in scrutinizing EU legislation and as guardians of the balance of power between member states and the EU. See Ústavní soud České republiky ze dne 26.11.2008 (ÚS) [Decision of the Constitutional Court of Nov. 26, 2008], sp.zn. Pl. ÚS 19/08, para. 165 (Czech); Bundesverfassungsgericht [BVerfG - Federal Constitutional Court], Case No. 2BvE 2/08, para. 409 (June 30, 2009), https://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/entscheidungen/es20090630_2bve000208en.html.Google Scholar

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187 See id. art. 5(3); id. protocol no. 2.Google Scholar

188 See id. Preamble; id. art. 1; id. protocol no. 2, Preamble.Google Scholar

189 See European Commission, On Subsidiarity and Proportionality, at 2, COM (2008) 586 final (Sept. 26, 2008). For a single test approach, see Wyatt, Derrick, Could a Yellow Card for National Parliaments Strengthen Judicial as Well as Political Policing of Subsidiarity, 2 Croatian Y.B. Eur. L. & Pol'y 1, (2006).Google Scholar

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192 Proposal for a Council Regulation on the Exercise of the Right to Take Collective Action Within the Context of the Freedom of Establishment and the Freedom to Provide Services, at 8, COM (2012) 130 final (Mar. 21, 2012). For the background to this proposal, see Monti, Mario, A New Strategy for the Single Market (May 9, 2010), http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/strategy/docs/monti_report_final_10_05_2010_en.pdf; European Commission, Towards a Single Market Act: For a Highly Competitive Social Market Economy, COM (2010) 623 (Oct. 27, 2010).Google Scholar

193 For a restrictive interpretation, see Fabbrini, Federico & Granat, Katarzyna, Yellow Card, But No Foul: The Role of the National Parliaments Under the Subsidiarity Protocol and the Commission Proposal for an EU Regulation on the Right to Strike, 50 Common Mkt. L. Rev. 115 (2013). For a broad interpretation, see Davies, Gareth, Subsidiarity: The Wrong Idea, in the Wrong Place, at the Wrong Time, 43 Common Mkt. L. Rev. 63 (2006); Jukka Snell, ‘European Constitutional Settlement,‘ an Ever Closer Union, and the Treaty of Lisbon: Democracy or Relevance?, 33 Eur. L. Rev. 619, 627–30 (2008).Google Scholar

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197 See TEU protocol no. 2, arts. 7(2)–7(3).Google Scholar

198 See id. protocol no. 2, arts. 4–5.Google Scholar

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217 See TEU art. 48(7).Google Scholar

218 Art. 294 TFEU sets out the procedure that involves the European Parliament.Google Scholar

219 See TEU protocol no. 1, art. 6.Google Scholar

220 See id. art. 15.Google Scholar

221 See TFEU art. 81(3).Google Scholar

222 See TEU art. 48(7).Google Scholar

223 See id. art. 11(4).Google Scholar