The Europeanization of Law-Making Activities in Spain

Abstract

"In ten years 80 per cent of the legislation related to economics, maybe also to taxes and social affairs, will be of Community origin." This declaration has been largely quoted, paraphrased and deformed by different authors, creating a persistent myth according to which 80 per cent of the legislative activity of the national legislatures would soon be reduced to the simple transposition of European norms. This book addresses the topic of the scope and impact of Europeanization on national legislation, as a part of the Europeanization debate which raises normative concerns linked to the "democratic deficit" debate. This state-of-the-art book shows that there are many assumptions and claims on how European integration may affect national legislation and, more generally, domestic governance but that there is a lack of solid and comparative data to test them. The aim of the book is to give a solid and comparative insight into Europeanization focusing on effective outcomes in a systematic way. This book analyzes the period 1986-2008 and includes an introduction, a global overview of European legislative activities which set the background for Europeanization of national legislatures, 9 country contributions (8 EU member states + Switzerland) including systematic, comparative and standardized data, tables and figures, and a conclusion with a comparative analysis of the European and domestic reasons for Europeanization. All national contributions conclude that Europeanization of national legislation is much more limited than assumed in the literature and public debate. It is limited to 10 to 30 per cent of laws (depending on the country), far less than the 80 per cent predicted by Jacques Delors and mentioned daily by medias and public opinion leaders to demonstrate EU domination on member states. Beside that general statement, the various chapters propose a deep insight on EU constraint over national legislation, providing much information on the kind of laws and policies that are Europeanized, the evolution of this process through time, the impact of Europeanization on the balance of powers and the relations between majority and opposition at national level, the strategies developed by national institutions in that context, and many other issues, making the book of interest to academics and policy-makers concerned with Europeanization and national legislation. Delors' myth : the scope and impact of the Europeanization of law production / Sylvain Brouard, Olivier Costa, and Thomas König -- EU legislative activities and domestic politics / Thomas König, Tanja Dannwolf, and Brooke Luetgert -- Measuring the "Europeanization" of Austrian law-making : legal and contextual factors / Marcelo Jenny and Wolfgang C. Müller -- The minor impact of EU on legislation in Finland / Matti Wiberg and Tapio Raunio -- Are French laws written in Brussels? The limited Europeanization of law-making in France and its implications / Sylvain Brouard, Olivier Costa, and Eric Kerrouche -- Does Europeanization change executive-parliament relations? executive dominance and parliamentary responses in Germany / Thomas König and Lars Mäder -- Leading governments and unwilling legislators : the European Union and the Italian law making (1987-2006) / Enrico Borghetto, Marco Giuliani, and Francesco Zucchini -- The Europeanization of domestic legislation in Luxembourg / Patrick Dumont and Astrid Spreitzer -- Myths and milestones : the Europeanization of the legislative agenda in the Netherlands / Gerard Breeman and Arco Timmermans -- The Europeanization of law-making activities in Spain / Anna M. Palau and Laura Chaqués -- So close, yet so far? the EU's footprint in Swiss legislative production / Roy Gava and Frédéric Varone -- Going beyond : causes of Europeanization / Thomas König and Lars Mäder.