The Cortes Generales in troubled times. The Eurozone-crisis and parliamentary involvement in EU-affairs

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: 1,3, University of Cologne (Institut für Politische Wissenschaft und Europäische Fragen), course: Advanced Seminar the political System of the EU: Parliamentary representation in the multi-level system of the EU, language: English, abstract: This paper focuses on the Spanish parliament (Cortes Generales, or just Cortes) and its role in the management of the Eurozone-crisis. Which measures does the Cortes Generales possess to scrutinize instruments of crisis management? Has it been actively using those to scrutinize European crisis management or has it been a mere rule taker? To answer these questions it is essential to look at the role of national parliaments in the EU system first. In a second step we want to have a closer look at the role of the parliament in the Spanish political system to better understand the then following part that is dealing with what scrutiny measures the Cortes possess and how actively it has been using them during the Eurozone-crisis.

During the last decades, the process of European integration has fundamentally changed patterns of governance in Europe and led to the establishment of a new institutional framework on the continent. The ongoing transfer of competencies from the national to the supranational level has created a multi-level governance system in which new institutions emerged and already existing ones are looking for a new role in this very complex system. Since the national parliaments represent the will of the citizens, they play a crucial role in legitimating decision-making at the EU level and therefore are under pressure to find ways of influencing EU policy. This is especially crucial since national executives to an increasing degree exercise legislative competencies at the EU level (namely in the EU Council) and as a consequence increasingly restrict national parliaments in influencing policy-making at the EU level.

The beginning of the European debt crisis in 2010 reinforced this tendency, since measures to counter the Eurozone-crisis, such as the establishment of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), intergovernmental treaties outside the legal framework of the EU like the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union (TSCG, also known as Fiscal Compact), and especially the European Semester strongly limit the national parliament's key prerogative: budgetary authority. Since their legislative competencies have been limited, national parliaments have elaborated different mechanisms to scrutinize decision-making at the supranational level to ensure democratic legitimacy.