REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY ACROSS LEVELS? NATIONAL PARLIAMENTS AND EU CONSTITUTIONALISM

This contribution analyses the meaning and practical application of the concepts of representative democracy and constitutionalism in relation to national parliaments within the European Union. A specific focus of investigation is the post-Lisbon function of national parliaments as conceptualised in a variety of models of EU constitutionalism. These models underline the importance of the independent roles of national parliaments by observing them not in the classic constellation of hierarchy but rather in that of heterarchy. However, there is as yet no sophisticated methodological approach for assessing the interactions between national parliaments and EU institutions and there is very little evidence of national parliamentarians performing as European actors. In order to test the theoretical premises, the article delves into the political praxis and examines the manner in which MPs and senators apply scrutiny instruments regarding a number of EU dossiers that were the object of cross-level discussions within the frameworks of COSAC, the Barroso Initiative and the early warning mechanism. The objective of the inquiry is to test the hypothesis that national parliamentary scrutiny of EU decision making does not occur as an isolated domestic process but as a process that is interdependent with those unravelling at the EU level, and that such scrutiny has implications for the European Union's democratic legitimacy.