The European Parliament

Abstract

The European Parliament's role in the European Union (EU) reform process is a paradoxical one. On the one hand it is the only directly elected parliamentary body at Union level, and is more continuously and deeply involved in the EU reform process than the individual national parliaments. On the other hand, it has no formal say on the outcome of that reform process and, unlike the national parliaments, cannot ratify or reject formal proposals for Treaty change. In spite of this handicap the European Parliament (EP) has itself been a major beneficiary of the Treaty reform process, both at Maastricht and Amsterdam.