The European Parliamentary Research Service: An In-house Think Tank to Strengthen an Institution

One of the key characteristics of the process of European integration is the growing influence of the European Parliament in the EU decision-making process. However, authors have described how the economic and financial crisis has given rise to a “new intergovernmentalism”, with decisions that are increasingly made through intergovernmental negotiations. This has considerably affected the position of the supranational institutions, not the least of the European Parliament. Nevertheless, the EP has tried to tackle the loss of influence in a number of ways, such as the reorganization and build-up of its administrative structures. This paper will focus on the creation of the European Parliamentary Research Service in 2013 as a political strategy to strengthen the EP’s position vis-à-vis the other institutions. This “in-house think tank” provides policy support to the members and has significantly improved the ability of the institution to monitor the actions of the main other institutions (including the European Council) and to increase its agenda-setting powers. Furthermore, it will be described how the reorganisation of the parliamentary administration and the creation of this Research Service was the subject of a political struggle between two conflicting views on the European Parliament as an institution. One view advocated a politicized legislature that is characterized by strong political groups and resembles most European national parliaments in “fused-powers systems”. The other view does not emphasize the cleavage between the political groups, but between the different institutions. In this view, the EP is seen as a legislature in a “separation-of-powers system”, such as the US Congress. The creation of the European Parliamentary Research Service can be considered as an important indicator of the dominance of the latter view.