Working practices winning out over formal rules: parliamentary scrutiny of EU matters in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia
Abstract
This paper analyses the systems of parliamentary scrutiny of EU matters applied in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. The analysis is based on, first, formal rules laid down in legal norms, and, second, working and other documents and interviews with civil servants from both legislative and executive bodies.
The paper seeks to demonstrate how the actual working of these systems may differ from formal procedures. It shows that the most important factors influencing it are not the legal rules but other aspects such as the day-to-day working routine used by executive and parliamentary officials charged with European matters.
The paper confirms the original hypothesis that the differences in the actual influence of the parliaments may be attributed mostly to the changes in parliamentary activity in the early period of the scrutiny systems and at later stages.