New Powers – New Peers: the Developing Relations between EU Member State Governments and the European Parliament, and What Can Be Learned from Looking to the US Congress

Wolffberg, Rebecca (2015) New Powers – New Peers: the Developing Relations between EU Member State Governments and the European Parliament, and What Can Be Learned from Looking to the US Congress. [Conference Proceedings] (Submitted)

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Abstract

A central part of the debate about the EU’s institutional system has centered on the role of the European Parliament and the aspiration that a strengthened EP would increase the democratic legitimacy of the EU towards its citizens. With its accessible structure, the EP has become a key target for external actors, and among these, increasingly, the member states’ governments, who have seen their influence through the Council of Ministers challenged by the growing influence of the European Parliament. Informal bilateral relations with MEPs’ offices, cutting across institutional and party political affiliations, has grown to become an integral part of the national governments’ strategies in the EU legislative process. On the basis of an empirical analysis of interviews with EU government officials, MEPs and their assistants, the paper examines this little studied dimension of interaction in the EU, and then places this in a comparative perspective with the US Congress.

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