Donnelly, Brendan; Bigatto, Milena --- "The European Parliament and Enlargement" [2008] ELECD 272; in Best, Edward; Christiansen, Thomas; Settembri, Pierpaolo (eds), "The Institutions of the Enlarged European Union" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008)

Book Title: The Institutions of the Enlarged European Union

Editor(s): Best, Edward; Christiansen, Thomas; Settembri, Pierpaolo

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847203458

Section: Chapter 5

Section Title: The European Parliament and Enlargement

Author(s): Donnelly, Brendan; Bigatto, Milena

Number of pages: 18

Extract:

5. The European Parliament and
enlargement
Brendan Donnelly and Milena Bigatto

This chapter considers from a number of related perspectives the interac-
tion between the recent enlargement of the European Union and the work-
ings and role of the European Parliament (EP). It concludes that the
objective impact of enlargement upon the Parliament has been slight, but
that the Union's enlargement has crystallized differing views about the
Union's future, differences which bear and will continue to bear particularly
on the development of the EP over the coming years.


THE NEW PARLIAMENTARIANS

The Quantitative Impact of Enlargement

A number of factors have combined to ensure that the impact of the
European Union's enlargements in 2004 and 2007 would be less pro-
nounced in the EP than in the European Commission or the Council of
Ministers. The first and most obvious ­ as the Parliament relates to the
Council ­ is purely quantitative in nature. While at plenary meetings of the
Commission the number of decision-making participants has increased
since 2004 from 20 to 27 (plus 35 per cent) and the European Parliament's
membership has increased by around the same proportion as a result of
those countries joining the Union in 2004 and 2007, from 570 to 785
(plus 38 per cent) (see Table 5.1), the Council's plenary meetings now have
27 members, where previously they had 15, an increase of 80 per cent.
The enlargements of 2004 and 2007 embraced a number of small and
very ...