The growing role of the European Parliament

Abstract

The idea of producing a thesis focusing on the European Parliament and its growing role came from three main points: 1. The importance of a directly elected and a powerful legislature in a democratic political system. The legislature is the most important tool for the government because it is from the legislature that the government derives its legitimacy. However the EP still lacks certain important powers that a national parliament normally enjoys. 2. The uniqueness of the European Parliament: The EP is the only directly elected transnational Parliament in the world. Moreover the EP forms part of a very important Union whose role is increasing on the international scene. 3. The ongoing debate about the future of the European Parliament. This Thesis was developed with these points of departure in mind. However a major problem I found when working on this Thesis was keeping constantly updated. At the moment of writing there are ongoing negotiations dealing with institutional reform of the EU. The European Parliament is a priority in these reforms. However at the same time it makes the topic more interesting. The European Parliament is still a work in progress. The main purpose of this Thesis was to concentrate on the growing role of the European Parliament and to detail to what extent its enlarged powers has reduced the democratic deficit. However my aim was not only to focus on the traditional approach of the subject. I have also tried to view the role of the EP and the issue of democratic legitimacy from a different perspective. As a result my argument deals also with the growing role of the EP in reducing the democratic deficit at the national level.