Understanding the Mechanisms of Parliamentary Scrutiny: A Comparative Analysis of the Transposition of the European Arrest Warrant

It is a widely accepted finding that there is a huge cross-national variation with regard to parliamentary adaptation to EU integration (Raunio 2011). Variation in parliamentary scrutiny is mainly traced back to three sources, the need to include opposition parties (e.g. minority government, bicameral system), a well-resourced committee system, and the national legal basis for parliamentary involvement in EU affairs. This paper examines the role of national parliaments in the transposition process of a highly controversial piece of legislation: The European Arrest Warrant. It uses the insights of the Europeanization and the comparative politics literature to develop hypotheses on the likelihood of parliamentary scrutiny in the transposition process in Germany, the UK and Poland. The following in depth comparative case studies provide insights into the actual mechanisms that motivate or hinder parliamentary control. Whereas the German and Polish case more or less confirm the expectations derived from the literature, the high level of scrutiny in the British case indicates that parliamentary scrutiny can also occur in a majoritarian system under certain conditions.