The first Committee on European Affairs to be established in a national Parliament was the “Committee on the Common Market and the Free Trade Area” in the German Bundesrat, created in 1957. Its purpose was to ensure that the Länder governments had a greater say in the federal government’s conduct of EU policy. The Belgian Chambre des représentants and the Italian Senato della Repubblica followed this example and created their own Committees on European Affairs in 1962 and 1968 respectively. But otherwise no other national Parliament was involved in the business of European affairs in these early days of the European Communities.
However, after the five rounds of enlargement of what is now the European Union - enlargements which added 21 new Member States between 1973 and 2007 - and after several reforms of the constitutional framework of the European Union aimed at addressing its democratic deficit, this picture has changed significantly. The national Parliaments of the first wave of countries to join the then EC—the UK, Denmark and Ireland—all established Committees on European Affairs (more or less) from the date of accession. The first direct elections to the European Parliament in 1979 encouraged the French Parliament to establish a special delegation in each of its two Chambers. In 1986 the signing of the European Single Act and the introduction of the plan to establish a single market in the EC gave national Parliaments in a number of Member States the impetus to strengthen their role vis-a-vis their governments: Committees on European Affairs were established in the Tweede Kamer (House of Representatives) of the Netherlands, and in the Parliaments of the two new Member States - Spain and Portugal.
Last but not least, the most recent accession of twelve new Member States has further increased the number of national Parliaments with Committees on European Affairs. Many of the newcomers had already established special 'European integration committees' before acceding to the EU with the purpose of monitoring the negotiation process and preparing for membership. This was the case for instance in Poland, Hungary and Lithuania (they established committees in 1991, 1992 and 1997 respectively).
Altogether there are today 36 'Committees on European Affairs' in the national Parliaments of the 27 Member States. Thirteen Member States have bi-cameral systems, which in most cases implies that there is a Committee on European Affairs in each Chamber, although the national Parliaments of Belgium, Ireland, Romania and Spain, have created joint committees bringing together Members from both Chambers.
Committees on European Affairs of the EU National Parliaments |
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