Getting involved in EU affairs? Regional parliaments’ participation in the EWS

Research on regional involvement in EU decision-making recently discovered subnational parliaments as relevant, yet still under researched object of inquiry. Subnational or regional parliaments have often been described as suffering from a double disadvantage in EU multilevel governance. As regional level actors, they lack a direct representative channel in EU decision-making. As parliamentary actors, they suffer from the often-cited weakening of legislative vis-à-vis executive actors in EU decision-making. Despite the undoubted validity of this diagnosis, EU treaty reform has led to a strengthening of the subnational dimension in multilevel EU governance – at least theoretically and in part (cf. Tatham 2014). In particular, the Lisbon Treaty for the first time made explicit reference to regional parliaments in Protocol No 2 on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. Against this background, a lot of research on regional parliaments and the the Early Warning System (EWS) emerged (e.g. Abels/Högenauer 2018; Högenauer 2019, Borońska-Hryniewiecka 2017, Borońska-Hryniewiecka 2021). Despite this focus, however, analysis on regional parliaments actual use of the EWS over time and from a comparative angle remains scarce, with previous research either focusing on institutional developments, (single) case studies, or resorting to easily available yet incomplete data. In our proposed paper we seek to address this research gap by providing a longitudinal comparison of the use of EWS by regional parliaments since 2009. Building on a novel data set across all 74 European regional parliaments with legislative powers, we examine the extent of regional participation in EWS. In addition, we look for temporal and geographical patterns and developments in regional parliaments’ EU engagement via the EWS, trying to add a more complete empirical picture to the literature on the EWS and its role for regional involvement in EU affairs.