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The European Parliament

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The Palgrave Handbook of EU Crises

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics ((PSEUP))

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Abstract

As multiple, overlapping crises have befallen the EU, the European Parliament (EP) has sought to enhance its own institutional standing and push for deeper integration. In some cases, it has succeeded by overcoming internal party divisions to articulate a single position on Brexit and to secure new formal oversight powers in the Eurozone crisis. The EP also acted nimbly on the EU’s behalf when member states were divided during the Ukraine crisis. However, these important gains for the EP still constitute “muddling through.” The EP may have secured a seat at the table but consistently struggles to drive the European response to crises: when the EP’s preferences differ from member states, it has been unable to achieve its desired outcomes.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The ordinary legislative procedure was extended to matters of agriculture, services, migration, structural and cohesion funds, and some judicial courts (Craig 2008: 110–111).

  2. 2.

    Since the Lisbon Treaty, the Ordinary Legislative Procedure has been used in 77% of directives and 30% of regulations (Chalmers and Chaves 2014: 165–166).

  3. 3.

    Passing the sanctioning procedure would suspend a member state’s voting rights in the Council.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of European Studies, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Akasemi Newsome

  2. Inland School of Business and Social Sciences, Inland University, Rena and Lillehammer, Norway

    Akasemi Newsome

  3. Department of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Matthew Stenberg

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Inland School of Business and Social Sciences, Inland University, Rena and Lillehammer, Norway

    Marianne Riddervold

  2. Inland School of Business and Social Sciences, Inland University, Rena and Lillehammer, Norway

    Jarle Trondal

  3. Department of Political Science and Management, University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway

    Akasemi Newsome

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Newsome, A., Stenberg, M. (2021). The European Parliament. In: Riddervold, M., Trondal, J., Newsome, A. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of EU Crises. Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51791-5_14

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