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Influence through cooperation? Regional voices in the EU subsidiarity scrutiny
by Paul Reimers (the German University for Administrative Sciences Speyer)
What is the role of regional parliaments in EU decision-making? This question gained momentum in response to the introduction of the Lisbon Treaty, which strengthened parliaments in the EU and ‘opened a crack in the door’ for regional participation in legislative proceedings. Notably, regional parliaments are to be consulted “where appropriate” by the national parliaments in subsidiarity affairs touching upon their respective legislative competence (Art. 6, Protocol 2., TEU 2008). So far, little is known about how regional contributions shape national scrutiny decisions and thus indirectly impact subsidiarity scrutiny in the EU. This raises questions about the effectiveness of consultative participation of regional parliaments.
My study recently published in JCMS addresses this research gap by asking if input from regional parliaments influences national subsidiarity scrutiny. I show that ad-hoc interparliamentary networks can strengthen the weak position of regional parliaments in the EU instrument for subsidiarity scrutiny – the so-called Early Warning System (EWS) – thus creating a potential for effective participation of regional parliaments in the EWS.
Facing ‘national gatekeepers’
National parliaments face a collective action problem in the EWS, having to meet high Quora to affect EU legislation. Subnational parliaments can contribute to overcome this collective action problem by reducing transaction costs. Furthermore, they can provide additional input legitimacy for scrutiny decisions. However, single regional parliaments often lack the resources and political influence to convince the national level to become active.
Therefore, regional parliaments must gain “strength through numbers” by coordinating their activity in the EWS. Platforms for exchange of information can help to communicate subsidiarity assessments and draw attention to an issue. Moreover, platforms can help regional parliaments to coordinate positions and thus influence the number of opinions adopted for certain proposals. This in turn convinces national parliaments of the necessity to become active for certain issues.
Empirical Approach
I call the process of convincing the national level matching. Cases are considered to be matching NO – reprimanding the violation of the principal of subsidiarity from a subnational perspective – was issued before a respective reasoned opinion (RO) – a similar assessment at national level – was adopted. A pairwise comparison of the arguments brought forward by the regional and national parliaments adds a substantive dimension to the operationalization of matching. If the arguments of the NO and RO don’t align, it is expected that a regional contribution did not influence the decision at national level.
To study regional influence in the EWS this paper builds on a unique dataset that covers the EWS activity of all 71 regional parliaments with legislative competence in the EU for a period of nearly 11 years. With only 37 cases of matching – the dependent variable – the quantitative analysis applies penalized maximum likelihood estimations (PMLE) and wild bootstrap as an alternative approach to account for the rare-event-character of the data.
The analysis tests the impact of co-issued NO on the likelihood of matching responses between regional and national parliaments. Furthermore, a mediation analysis examines if activity on the regional parliamentary exchange platform (REGPEX) for subsidiarity scrutiny provides a signal for other (regional) parliaments and thus fosters coordination of subsidiarity scrutiny in the EWS. A set of variables controls for variance between contexts and legislative proposals.
Findings and main take-aways
The results suggest that regional influence on national subsidiarity scrutiny is very limited. Few cases receive attention from both regional and national parliaments and the likelihood of matching even decreases over time. However, regional cooperation and communication of scrutiny results via REGPEX can improve the standing of regional parliaments in the EWS – at least to some extent.
Figure 1 illustrates that co-issuance is a strong predictor for matching with six times higher probability if not one, but two regional parliaments adopt a NO and REGPEX is used to communicate scrutiny results. Mediation analysis also suggests that networks like REGPEX influence the scrutiny behaviour of regional parliaments by supporting the co-issuance of NO and thus strengthen the standing of regions in the EWS.
Figure 1: Predicted probability of matching for different Numbers of NO depending on REGPEX upload
Source: Own compilation.
Note: Calculations are based on Model 5 (predicted for CI = 90 %) with all other variables set to their mean. Observations with Number of NO higher than 4 were omitted due to the low number of observations for these cases.
In summary, the contribution of this paper is twofold. Results highlight that subsidiarity scrutiny by regional parliaments as lone actors is not a promising strategy to influence EU decision-making. It thus challenges hope about re-legitimized decision-making in the EU through regional subsidiarity scrutiny. However, interparliamentary cooperation could be used as an amplifier to make regional subsidiarity concerns heard. In this context, investigating cooperation between (regional) parliaments, with a focus on the value added through institutionalized networks, would be a clear next step to complement the findings of this study.
Paul Reimers is a PhD candidate in Political Science at the German University for Administrative Sciences Speyer. His research focuses on parliaments and radical right populist parties at the local level. Follow him on LinkedIn here.
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Paul Reimers is a PhD candidate in Political Science at the German University for Administrative Sciences Speyer. His research focuses on parliaments and radical right populist parties at the local level. Follow him on LinkedIn here.
