Brexit and National Parliaments

How will interparliamentary relations in the EU be affected by Brexit? In recent years, national parliaments have increased their role as EU-level actors, due in part to new powers stemming from the Treaty of Lisbon. Collectively, national parliaments may now even be thought of as a virtual “institution” in EU politics. However, while the likely effects of Brexit on other EU institutions – e.g. the Council, the European Parliament – have been extensively analysed, this is not true of the effect of the UK’s departure on the relations between the national parliaments of the remaining EU-27. This paper will look at four forms of interparliamentary cooperation – the Early Warning Mechanism, the Political Dialogue, the Inter-Parliamentary Conferences, and the National Parliament Representatives – to assess the likely impact of Brexit on all four. In all these areas, both chambers of the UK parliament were among the most actively involved, sometimes in a leadership role, and so the effect of their absence is likely to be disproportionately felt. First, the Early Warning Mechanism – a system in which national parliaments can raise subsidiarity-based objections to EU legislative proposals – would have actually been strengthened if the UK-EU deal had been approved in the UK referendum of 2016. National parliaments would have gained an effective veto (a “red card”) over new EU legislation. Thus even before the UK left the EU, this form of interparliamentary relations was impacted by Brexit. Second, the Political Dialogue is an ongoing exchange of letters between national parliaments and the European Commission on matters of EU policy. The UK House of Lords was a leading advocate of a “green card” initiative in which national parliaments would use the Political Dialogue to propose new EU legislation. Third, there are now numerous interparliamentary conferences that discuss and oversee key EU policy areas in which the UK parliament is an active participant. However, after Brexit the UK parliament is likely to become either a non-participant or a non-voting observer within these bodies, even if they are concerned with key policy areas (e.g. foreign and defense policy, police cooperation) where UK participation is arguably in the interest of both the UK and the EU. Fourth, all 28 EU national parliaments in the EU now have non-elected officials posted in Brussels as National Parliament Representatives; these officials, housed together in a suite of offices within the European Parliament, constitute a network that works together to promote the interests of national parliaments in the EU. While the UK House of Commons was one of the first parliaments to establish such an office – and its officials are among the most active in the network – its continued presence is uncertain in the light of Brexit. The UK parliament played an important role in the development of all four of these forms of interparliamentary cooperation; the departure of the UK from the EU threatens to undermine interparliamentary cooperation not just in the UK but in the EU as a whole.