scholarly journals Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation: The Next Frontier in Global Politics

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
Shaker Ahmed Alshareef

National parliaments have become significantly active in international arena particularly in advancing democracy and national interests within a globalized context. This report assesses the role that inter-parliamentary organizations play in regional and global political scenes under the umbrella of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). The article views these regional institutions in the context of their relations to the IPU through content analysis of available literature. Three of the regional bodies of interest in the report are the Arab Parliament, Central American Parliament (PARLACEN), and the European Union Parliament. The findings drawn from available literature shows that these organizations have become the new frontier for political movements as they take center stage in global affairs. The objectives of these regional bodies are largely aligned with those of the IPU, and it is not surprising that they frequently collaborate or agree on several issues. The article concludes that the Inter-parliamentary diplomacy and the pursuit of democracy through collective efforts of regional parliamentary bodies have made it possible for IPU to have a higher political currency in different jurisdictions.

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-79
Author(s):  
Nargiza Sodikova ◽  
◽  
◽  

Important aspects of French foreign policy and national interests in the modern time,France's position in international security and the specifics of foreign affairs with the United States and the European Union are revealed in this article


2001 ◽  
Vol 34 (7) ◽  
pp. 742-767 ◽  
Author(s):  
RAINER EISING ◽  
NICOLAS JABKO

After 10 years of controversial negotiations, in 1996 the European Union finally took action to liberalize the electricity supply industry. Given the intensity of bilateral contacts between France and Germany, the reform has often been presented as a straightforward intergovernmental deal. This article argues that the French-German deal was only the tip of the iceberg. Perceptions of national interests evolved considerably in both countries. The most important cause for these changes was at the European Union (EU) level, not at the national level. The institutional dynamics of EU negotiations induced a series of preference changes and key political realignments at the national level.


1999 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 180-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tapio Raunio

NATIONAL PARLIAMENTS ARE CENTRAL ACTORS IN THE SCRUTINY AND implementation of European Union (EU) legislation. Member state legislatures provide a channel for incorporating public opinion into the governance of the Union. Their importance has become more evident during the 1990s as debate has focused on the democratic deficit and deparliamentarization of European governance.National parliaments are involved in EU decision-making in three ways: they 1) participate in national policy formulation on Union legislation; 2) monitor the behaviour of member state representatives in the Council of Ministers and the European Council; and 3) have functions specifically regulated in the treaties, such as ratification of treaty amendments and implementation of directives. The third function differs from the first two as the treaties impose rights and duties on the national parliaments, whereas there is no EU law on national policy formulation on Union legislation or on the scrutiny of ministers. During the 1996-97 Intergovernmental Conference (ICC) the member states saw no need for such European-level regulation. Thus it is up to each national parliament – within the limits set by member state constitutions and other constraints – to decide how it deals with the challenges brought by EU membership.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-62
Author(s):  
Diane Fromage

Following the Great Financial Crisis, the European Central Bank’s functions have been significantly altered. It is now involved in the functioning of a variety of European Union bodies and agencies, new powers in the field of banking supervision have been attributed to it and it has resorted to unconventional monetary policy. Such a concentration of powers arguably gives rise to issues of accountability and institutional balance within the European Union: (i) the resulting institutional framework is particularly complex and difficult to understand; (ii) the numerous functions the European Central Bank assumes makes it increasingly difficult to identify in which arena(s) it should be held to account for which action; and (iii) its role in the different bodies or agencies may vary in theory and in practice, which, in turn, influences the degree to which the European Central Bank should be held to account. This article aims at showing to what extent the European Central Bank’s role has multiplied and diversified with a view to assess how it is held to account in those different instances, and what the consequences are for the European Central Bank’s democratic accountability, primarily towards the European Parliament, as well as towards the Council of the European Union and national parliaments where applicable.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 410-425
Author(s):  
Petra Debusscher ◽  
Ian Manners

This article assesses the study of gender equality policies in European Union external actions with a focus on the theoretical and empirical routes to understanding the field in times of crises. It argues that the emerging body of literature on gender in European Union external relations makes it possible to explain, understand, and judge the European Union in global politics by rethinking the nature of power from a gender perspective. The article then argues that to develop gender and European Union external relations in its next decade, it is necessary to rethink the study of the European Union as a global gender actor. This encompasses a reassessment of the ‘European Union’, ‘gender’, and the ‘global’, as well as the development of a holistic macro-, meso-, and micro-analysis. The article concludes by proposing a distinctive theoretical and methodological approach which involves a holistic intersectional and inclusive study of gender+ in European Union external actions.


2001 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karlheinz Neunreither

In Early December 2000 The Political Leaders Of The European Union (EU) met in Nice in order to decide on the treaty adaptations needed before the enlargement envisaged for the next decade. The overall goal was to render the EU more efficient and its decision making more transparent. The outcome of this important event was widely considered as disappointing. Some observers even came to the conclusion that there were no leaders of the EU as such, but only rather narrow-minded, egotistical national leaders who did not – with minor exceptions – care about the ‘common good’ at all. Never had it become so evident, in the opinion of some, that the European perspective had been fading away for many years, and that it was being replaced by national considerations which are often short-sighted and limited to the horizon of the next national elections. One of the classical theories on European integration, neo-functionalism, measures the progress of integration in terms of the Europeanization of its political elites. From this perspective, the top decision-makers seem to be on a downward trend. Is it then a case for the opposite theory, that of intergovernmentalism, which claims that national interests continue to be in the centre of EU decision-making and that tough bargaining is of its very nature?


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