Abstract

The highly influential parliamentary debates in the United Kingdom, the United States or France on the Syrian conflict have fostered the perception that parliaments are gaining salience in first-order international affairs. This article examines whether this momentum can also be observed when it comes to the European foreign and security policy. Far from this, the article argues that more than a consistent tendency towards a stronger role of parliaments, we observe divergent trends leading to a patchwork of parliamentary oversight at national, supranational and transnational levels. The article concludes with some reflections on the prospects for improving the multi-level parliamentary oversight of the CFSP/CSDP. 

Anna Herranz-Surrallés is Marie Curie Fellow (Regional Programme Beatriu de Pinós) at Maastricht University