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Il Parlamento europeo per la nuova Unione

Editors:
14/04/2014

The setting of the coming European Parliament elections is going to be quite different from preceding ones. The reasons are many. First, the Lisbon Treaty. If on the one hand it increased some powers of the EP, on the other it shifted the institutional balance towards the European Council to the detriment of the Commission, which now has a more bureaucratic function, and the European Parliament. Then, the way in which the emergency caused by the economic crisis was dealt with further complicated things. Instead of seeking the tools for handling it in the Treaty, the Council worked out institutional solutions that lie outside of it - two new international treaties, the Fiscal Compact and the European Stability Mechanism - thus again reducing the EP's role. The EP's actions targeting these problems and its attempts to influence the political-institutional evolution taking place in recent years are largely unknown. They certainly have had little effect on public opinion, which is increasingly sceptical and critical towards the European institutions. This book tries to fill the gap in knowledge of the European Parliament and points the way to enhancing the integration process, starting out from the central and strategic role of the future EP.

Study prepared within the framework of the strategic partnership between the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) and Compagnia di San Paolo.

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