TTIP and Legislative-Executive Relations in EU Trade Policy
West European Politics, Vol. 40, No. 1, 2017, pp. 202-221
15 Pages Posted: 12 Oct 2016 Last revised: 28 Nov 2016
Date Written: October 11, 2016
Abstract
This article analyses Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations in order to assess how the move towards tighter economic integration within the EU-US strategic partnership impacts legislative-executive relations in EU trade policy. The analysis examines the institutional, substantive and party political dimensions of national parliaments’ scrutiny of the Common Commercial Policy. Based on insights into both domestic and EU channels of parliamentary monitoring of TTIP negotiations, the article argues that, although the government remains the central object of democratic control, NPs’ involvement in transatlantic trade extends beyond the government’s foreign policy to encompass the EU’s own transatlantic and trade policies. This is rooted in the legislatures’ legal capacity to constrain the executive in the negotiation, conclusion and, where applicable, ratification phases of EU trade agreements. It is submitted that national parliamentary influence takes the shape of politicisation of the legitimacy of the expected policy outcomes of these agreements.
Keywords: TTIP, National Parliaments, Transatlantic Relations, EU Trade Policy, Mixed Agreements
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