Law
Florian Baach
Parlamentarische Mitwirkung in Angelegenheiten der Europäischen Union
Die Parlamente Deutschlands und Polens im europäischen Verfassungsverbund
[Parliamentary Participation in European Union Affairs. The Parliaments of Germany and Poland in a European Constitutional Network.]
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Published in German.
In the widespread debate on the democratic legitimacy of the European Union, national parliaments often seem to be a kind of knight in shining armor. In its decision on the Maastricht Treaty, the German Federal Constitutional Court put national parliaments at the center of the Union's legitimacy. Florian Baach examines the competences of the German and the Polish parliament in European Union affairs, focusing on the German Bundestag and the Sejm of the Republic of Poland. Based on the concept of a constitutional network formed by the European treaties and national constitutional law, the author describes a European democratic principle and its standards for the role of national parliaments. These standards are applied to the relevant competences of the German and the Polish parliament.