Reminder: Summer School on Parliamentary Democracy in Europe, LUISS Centre for Parliamentary Studies, Rome, Italy, July 14-25, 2014

We wanted to alert readers to the Summer School on Parliamentary Democracy in Europe hosted by the LUISS Centre for Parliamentary Studies in Rome, which will take place from July 14-25, 2014. Limited places are still available.  Network member Peter Lindseth (UConn) will deliver the closing lecture of the first week on July 18, and the faculty for both weeks includes a large number of leading scholars of EU law and politics (see here). An overview is immediately below, and the program is available here. Further information, including registration details, can be found here.  Tuition fees may be found here.

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Summer School on Parliamentary Democracy in Europe 

(Third edition) 

The Europeanisation of national parliaments 

Rome, July 14-25, 2014

Since the onset of the European integration process, national parliaments have been continuously adjusting their traditional functions, organization and role. The increasing influence of EU policy-making in the domestic arena − usually labelled as Europeanisation − redefined the scope and limits of national legislation, as well as the structure of political competition.

Parliaments have been often described as the 'late comers' and the 'losers' of European integration. However, the Treaty of Lisbon has somewhat rehabilitated their position, by allowing them to participate more effectively in the EU decision-making processes, up to the point of providing new parliamentary functions directly in the Treaties, which may pose problems in terms of inter-institutional balance both at the national and at the European level.

In particular, the current reform of the economic governance and the resurgence of intergovernmentalism request the active involvement of national parliaments in EU affairs aiming to preserve and possibly enhance the legitimacy of the European action and to control its outcomes. Such 'transformations' require to be studied in depth, aiming to assess if and how the interaction between parliaments and citizens, political parties, national and European bodies has changed.

This summer school untangles these issues and provides its participants with a map of the current state of the European Union democracy, under the perspective of the national parliaments, by looking at their election, organization, decision-making processes, inter-institutional relations, and, in the end, at their active contribution 'to the good functioning of the Union' (Art. 12 TEU).

Participants will be provided with knowledge and expertise that will allow them to understand and interpret the complex and fascinating role of these institutions. The need to combine theory with practice in understanding the future of Europe's democracy is reflected in the Faculty, which includes world-class academics and experienced officials from European and national institutions.

This Summer School has been awarded as a Jean Monnet module co-financed by the European Commission in 2013, 2014, 2015.

This intensive summer course is organized in cooperation with:

- LUISS Centre for Parliamentary Studies;
- CEUR Foundation;
- International Political Science Association (IPSA);
- SciencesPo; and
- ULB, Université Libre de Bruxelles.