Policy memo, no. 18, December 2010
Authors: Cristian Ghinea, Dragoș Dinu, Oana Tănăsache
The Romanian Centre for European Policies (CRPE) has launched the report “The Romanian Parliament enters the European Union. The challenge of being an active actor in Europe” during a conference which took place at the Romanian Senate on 8 December 2010.
The CRPE study analyses the manner in which the Romanian legislative becomes involved in European affairs, especially after the changes brought about by the Lisbon Treaty. The report underlines the fact that the Lisbon Treaty gives to national legislatives the possibility to have a more active role in European decision-making, especially in their relationship with the executive. However, the Romanian parliament has not yet taken advantage of this role and remains marginal in the EU affairs coordination process.
At the core of this problem lies not only the lack of a legislative framework which could regulate the parliament – government relationship in the European affairs field, but also the MPs’ visible disinterest to get actively involved in European policies (the current perception is that European issues are a matter for the government).
Considering the wide opportunities to improve the European role of the Romanian legislative, the CRPE experts recommend the following:
• Streamlining the parliament’s activity by replacing the Common Committee on European Affairs with two separate committees for the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies;
• Consolidating political leadership at the level of the committee responsible for European affairs;
• Introducing an internal mechanism to improve the technical analysis – political decision connection.
The report “The Romanian Parliament enters the European Union. The challenge of being an active actor in Europe” appeared within the project “Consolidating the Parliament’s capacity to be an active European actor” ran by the Romanian Centre for European Policies together with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Romania.
The report is available, here.