The new European Commission has bound considerable political credit to the results of the current TTIP negotiations. A central challenge in the regulatory cooperation mechanism envisioned by TTIP is, however, whether regulatory processes gradually appear detached from the policy preferences of the regulated. A mechanism of parliamentary scrutiny may be part of the answer: As the TTIP is expected to be a ‘living agreement’ Alemanno (2014), among others, has envisaged a mechanism guaranteeing the possibility for parliamentary oversight, i.e. that legislators can contribute to shaping the regulatory dialogue foreseen by TTIP. In other words, regulators’ decisions should be subject to parliamentary scrutiny. This paper explores the proposal for further parliamentary oversight in regulatory processes and analyses the current TTIP negotiations as a window of opportunity for increased parliamentarization of European politics, also in policy-making beyond the borders of the EU.
