Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

A lesser role in the EU for national parliaments is bad news for Cameron’s renegotiation

David Cameron may have got away with his failure to block Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the European Commission, but that doesn’t mean that his MPs aren’t agitated about the way things are going in Europe. One aspect of last week’s European Council meeting that most people missed was a document setting out what appears to be a significantly reduced role for national parliaments in the EU.

The Strategic Agenda was published as an annex to the European Council conclusions last week. It says:

‘The credibility of the Union depends on its ability to ensure adequate follow-up on decisions and commitments. This requires strong and credible institutions, but will also benefit from closer involvement of national parliaments.’

Those ‘strong and credible institutions’ are the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the European Court of Justice. The role of national parliaments, meanwhile, appears to have been significantly reduced from the first draft of this document, which David Cameron and Herman Van Rompuy discussed in their Downing Street meeting on 23 June.

Isabel Hardman
Written by
Isabel Hardman
Isabel Hardman is assistant editor of The Spectator and author of Why We Get the Wrong Politicians. She also presents Radio 4’s Week in Westminster.

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