Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 04/2012

Interparliamentary scrutiny of the CFSP: avenues for the future

Corine Caballero-Bourdot

October 2011

European Union Institute for Security Studies

Abstract

This report examines a number of possible future orientations with regard to the interparliamentary scrutiny of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). It sets out the democratic challenges facing European integration and the new context surrounding the CFSP in the wake of the Lisbon Treaty, focusing in particular on the existing legal provisions for the interparliamentary scrutiny of the CFSP. The paper surveys previous initiatives as well as current discussions regarding the future interparliamentary scrutiny of the CFSP. The author analyses the various options on the table and makes a number of recommendations for the best possible organisation of such interparlamentary scrutiny in the future.