Conclusion: From ‘latecomers’ to ‘policy shapers’? - The role of national parliaments in the ‘post-lisbon’ union

Abstract

For decades, national parliaments saw their powers regularly reduced as governments signed up to ever more European integration. While national parliaments were formally required to vote on such changes and, hence, could technically have blocked them, in practice there was little likelihood that they would do so.1 Time and again competences shifted to the European Union (EU), with the loss of parliamentary oversight being compensated by an increased role for the European Parliament (see, inter alia, Chapter 2, this volume).