The Council’s REACH? National governments’ influence in the European Parliament

The presence of cross-institutional partisan links between the Council and the European Parliament is a key feature of bicameral law-making in the European Union. However, assessing the conditions under which national parties can and do influence ‘their’ Members of the European Parliament is complic...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:European Union politics 2018-12, Vol.19 (4), p.663-683
Main Author: Willumsen, David M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chemicals
Councils
European cultural groups
International law
Legislatures
Parliaments
Partisanship
Political parties
Registration
Regulation
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The presence of cross-institutional partisan links between the Council and the European Parliament is a key feature of bicameral law-making in the European Union. However, assessing the conditions under which national parties can and do influence ‘their’ Members of the European Parliament is complicated by a lack of measurements of the national interest at stake. Analysing the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals regulation, this article shows that national parties represented in the Council only seek to influence ‘their’ Members of the European Parliament when the national interest at stake is sufficiently large and, more importantly, when a legislative deal has been struck. These findings have implications for our understanding of legislative politics in the European Union and the relationship between Members of the European Parliament, European Parliamentary Groups and the Council.
ISSN:1465-1165
1741-2757
DOI:10.1177/1465116518783305