The European Parliament – more powerful but less legitimate?

The full title of this paper is: "The European Parliament – more powerful, less legitimate? An outlook for the 7th legislature".

It has just been published by the Centre for European Policy Studies (Belgium).

Julia De Clerck-Sachsse and Piotr Maciej Kaczyński write that "In order to remain efficient in the face of increasing complexity, the EP has had to streamline its working procedures, moving more decisions to parliamentary committees and cutting down time for debate.... measures to increase the efficiency of the EP, most notably the trend towards speeding up agreements with the Council (1st reading agreements) run the risk of undermining the EP’s role as a forum of debate....(undermining) the legitimacy of the EP" and raising the possibility that "voters will become ever more alienated from its work".

http://www.europesworld.org/NewEnglish/Home/PartnerPosts/tabid/671/PostID/451/TheEuropeanParliamentmorepowerfullesslegitimateAnoutlookforthe7thlegislature.aspx Sphere: Related Content