Democratising the European Multi-level Polity? A (re-)Assessment of the Early Warning System

• Authors: Karolina Borońska-Hryniewiecka
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

One of the main promises of the Treaty of Lisbon was to increase the democratic legitimacy of the European Union through strengthening the role of national parliament’s in EU policy-making under so-called "Early Warning System" (EWS) for subsidiarity control. However, introduction of the EWS has met with some criticism in the academic literature. Scholars claim that the mechanism not only fails to alleviate the democratic deficit, but it also obfuscates the existing channels of delegation and accountability in the EU. Moreover, it has been predicted that the EWS will remain a mere "window dressing", largely unexploited by national assemblies, let alone the subnational parliaments. This article addresses the above-mentioned criticisms four years after the entry into force of the Lisbon provisions. On the basis of an empirically grounded analysis, this article identifies and evaluates positive effects of the EWS with respect to both the input and output legitimacy of the EU. The article posits that the unintended (spill-over) effects of the EWS allow for its broader conceptualisation as (1) a disciplining tool for a better regulatory environment; (2) a representation and accountability enhancing mechanism; (3) an opportunity structure for increasing parliamentary control of the executive an (4) a Europeanization mechanism.

Keywords

EN

European Union; Lisbon Treaty

• Publisher: Centre for Europe, University of Warsaw
• Journal: Yearbook of Polish European Studies
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 16
• Pages: s.167-188

Contributors

author

Karolina Borońska-Hryniewiecka

• Ph.D. - Assistant Professor at the Institute of Political Science of the University of Wroclaw and a Post-Doctoral Lecturer at the Departament of International Relations and European Studies of Masaryk University