The European Parliament between Supranationalism and (New) Intergovernmentalism

Abstract

What role does the European Parliament (EP) have in current European Union (EU) politics and how does it locate itself in the contemporary supranational-intergovernmental balance? Recent contributions on the “new intergovernmentalism” observe a transformation of EU politics in the form of fading supranationalisation (where supranationalisation means the empowerment of supranational actors such as the EP). Other accounts, by contrast, observe an empowerment of the EP even after the Lisbon treaty. Therefore, this panel seeks to examine the EP’s role across policies between the poles of (new) intergovernmentalism, on the one hand, and the EU’s parliamentarization, on the other hand. It includes papers which analyze the EP’s role in different EU policies and with regard to perspectives of supranationalism and/or (new) intergovernmentalism.