Parliamentary Oversight: Challenges Facing Classic Scrutiny Instruments and the Emergence of New Forms of ‘Steering’ Scrutiny

Abstract

A persisting challenge facing any type of scrutiny remains the co-existence of numerous executive actors at the different levels of EU multilevel decision-making, which often seek to deliberately escape parliamentary control. The competition between several actors at both the agenda-setting and implementation stages of EU legislation makes it necessary for the different political actors involved, and hence also for the European Parliament, to use their say on legislative and policy programming to bring to bear the insights of their respective scrutiny exercises. The increasingly stronger political link between the Parliament and the Commission also justifies an increased effort on Parliament’s side to constructively shape future policy and legislative action based on implementation results. If executive action is already significantly predetermined at the stage of agenda-setting, for instance, the ex-post control needs to be complemented by an ex-ante control, as well as by other ‘steering’ oversight tools, so as to be able to pre-empt the effects of agenda-setting and legislation on their implementation.