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The European Specialist in Search of a Role

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The French Parliament and the European Union

Part of the book series: French Politics, Society and Culture ((FPSC))

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Abstract

This chapter assesses the capacity of MPs to influence the European policy of the French government. An in-depth investigation leads to distinguish between different strategies: formal tools of participation are not influential, informal contacts are marginally so, public politicisation may weigh on the government as well as transpositions of EU norms. The limited impact of the scrutiny of EU projects leads the members of the European Affairs Committees to follow finalities other than influence when sitting on those structures. The motivations of the successive chairs of the National Assembly committees are analysed in order to stress the social dimension of their commitments.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Information report no. 441 by Jean Bizet, op. cit.

  2. 2.

    In March 2000, the Lisbon European Council formulated a Strategy for Growth and Jobs, based on the Open Method of Coordination (OMC).

  3. 3.

    Martine Aubry was Minister of Social Affairs from 1997 to 2000, when she was succeeded by Elisabeth Guigou.

  4. 4.

    National Assembly information report no. 2751, made by the EU Delegation, on public utilities in Europe, presented by Fuchs, 23 November 2000.

  5. 5.

    In November 1997, an Extraordinary European Council on Employment was held in Luxemburg. It concluded that a strategy coordinating national employment policies should be put in place.

  6. 6.

    National Assembly Report no. 2423, made by the EU Delegation, on social dumping in Europe, presented by Gorce, 25 May 2000.

  7. 7.

    National Assembly Report no. 2729, made by the EU Delegation, on the schedule for social policy, presented by Gorce, 16 November 2000.

  8. 8.

    National Assembly Report no. 1645, made by the EU Delegation, on the proposed directives relating to railways in the Community’s railways, presented by Boulaud, 27 May 1999.

  9. 9.

    National Assembly report no. 2138, made by the EU Delegation, on proposals for the French Presidency of the EU, presented by Barrau, 3 February 2000.

  10. 10.

    National Assembly report no. 2053, made by the EU Delegation, on the proposed directive of the European Parliament and Council regarding services in the internal market, presented by Anne-Marie Comparini, 2 February 2005.

  11. 11.

    National Assembly information report no. 2111, made by the Committee on Economic Affairs, the Environment and Regional Affairs, on a motion for a resolution tabled by Comparini, Ayrault and Deprez, relating to a proposal for an EP and Council directive on services in the internal market, by Decou, 1 March 2005.

  12. 12.

    Le Monde, 17 March 2005.

  13. 13.

    François Randour (2018) observes that parliaments are all the more willing to let the ministers’ hands be untied when an issue is domestically salient.

  14. 14.

    National Assembly information report no. 1834, 12th Parliament, on Turkey and the EU, made on behalf of the EU Delegation, and written by Lengagne, 5 October 2004.

  15. 15.

    ‘Gaz: le gouvernement renonce à présenter un amendement sur l’ouverture du marché’, Agence France Presse, 5 December 2001.

  16. 16.

    National Assembly information report no. 391, made on behalf of the Delegation for the EU, on the transposition of the directive relating to the common rules for the internal market in natural gas, Christian Philip, 21 November 2002, p. 41.

  17. 17.

    Conseil d’Etat, Directives européennes: anticiper pour mieux transposer, Paris, La documentation française, 2015, p. 47.

  18. 18.

    Source: Observatory of European Institutions (Sciences Po).

  19. 19.

    Engagement letter from Manuel Valls to the Vice-President of the Council of State, 24 November 2014.

  20. 20.

    Parliament men was the smallest of these groups in the House of Commons (9% of backbenchers). See: Searing (1994, chapter 5).

  21. 21.

    The French Yves-Thibault de Silguy was member of the European Commission in charge of Economic and Financial Affairs from 1995 to 1999. In this capacity he supervised the introduction of the euro.

  22. 22.

    Within the role of Parliament men, Searing identifies three sub-roles: the club men, the spectators and the status seekers (1994: 131–95, here p. 177).

  23. 23.

    Payne notes that politicians who are motivated by a desire for conviviality are not the most ambitious and are rather shy about claiming to be an expert on a subject (Payne et al. 1986, p. 81).

  24. 24.

    At the time the leader of the RPR group in the National Assembly.

  25. 25.

    Report no. 2905 of the Delegation of the National Assembly for the EU presented by Barrau, about the French presidency, 31 January 2001.

  26. 26.

    Jean-Pierre Raffarin was Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin Foreign Affairs Minister, Noëlle Lenoir Junior Minister for Europe, Alain Juppé President of the UMP, and Jacques Barrot chaired the UMP group of the National Assembly.

  27. 27.

    Hervé Gaymard was Minister for Agriculture.

  28. 28.

    ‘Barnier et Lequiller dans le même fauteuil’, Le Figaro, 30 March 2006.

  29. 29.

    Quotation from a debate organised by the governmental Centre d’analyse stratégique in which Lequiller was seemingly invited as a specialist of media coverage of European affairs. In ‘Information sur l’Europe en France: Crise de l’offre, crise de la demande?’, Horizons stratégiques, no. 6, 2007, p. 15.

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  1. Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics, Sciences Po, Paris, France

    Olivier Rozenberg

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Rozenberg, O. (2020). The European Specialist in Search of a Role. In: The French Parliament and the European Union. French Politics, Society and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19791-9_8

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