This panel centres on the role of information in the parliamentary control of executive power. It maps and analyses the challenges of information asymmetries in security and finance as two fields where executive privileges predominate. Despite a vast literature on issues of parliamentary control, the specific features and consequences of gaps of information have been...
Parliamentary oversight between security exceptions and executive confidentiality
Parliamentary oversight requires accessibility of information. In foreign and security policy however, executive institutions have possession and discretion over (sensitive) information. Practice shows that oversight at times is not activated at all due to ‘deep secrets‘, i.e. parliaments are unaware of certain executive action or its scope (the case with the PRISM programme and U.S....
Parliamentary access to information in two different yet similar domains: Economic and security governance compared
At first sight, parliamentary participation in Economic and Security governance within the European Union (EU) do not appear to have much in common. In particular, in the economic and monetary area many competences have been transferred to the EU level or, at least, the EU coordinates Member States policy, By contrast, the security area is...
Parliamentary control of Europol: challenges of collective access to information
Parliamentary control of security policies uncovers an apparent paradox: it relies on the sharing of information that is strictly put under executive dominance not to harm the essential security interests. This issue is gaining renewed interest at European level after the establishment of the Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group (JPSG) on Europol. Access to sensitive non-classified...
National parliaments and information asymmetries in the European Semester
This paper analyses information asymmetries in relevant procedures in the European Semester. The paper seeks to map the consequences for parliaments’ standing and provide a contribution on the role of parliaments for checks of executive institutions in issues of finance in light of the many changes driven by the economic and financial crisis. Several measures...