A „bécsi modell”. Az osztrák parlament és az EU-csatlakozás
The ‘Vienna Model’. The Austrian Parliament and Accession to the EU

Summary/Abstract: After acceession to the European Union the national parliaments are forced to face the question how they can assert their say in the process of law making of the Union besides having lost a significant part of their national soverignty. According to the analyses of the international literature on political science this is attempted to be compensated by several parliaments by enhancing their control over the governments. The Austrian Parliament has also developed such a model, the so-called ‘Vienna’ one. According to this model it is obligatory for the government to inform the legislature about every EU document, and on the other hand, Parliament has the right to control the minister’s hands during his negotiations with Brussels. The result has turned out to be extremely positive from the angle of the policy of democracy, as Parliament has acquired strong authorisations. However, on the basis of the experiences of seven years it is visible that the model does not function efficiently. The outcome can be traced back to two main causes. Neither the government, nor the administration are interested in their activities being strongly controlled by Parliament. In addition to this aspect of power politics, the main reason is to be found in the structural defect that the Austrian Parliament is unable to select, process and assess the EU materials flooding it. No adequate mechanism has been created for the purpose, hence legislation is practically unable to meet the requirements and utilise the possibilities offered by the constitution and the standing rules. The reduction of the limitation of ministers in their activities in Brussels by parliamentary statements was also related to the fact besides the initially negative experiences that the governing coalition settles the issue ‘internally’ in a different way. It is little comfort that the erosion of the specific Austrian democracy (concordancy democracy) in the 19990s and its movement towards a democracy of competition have, to some extent, revaluated the sphere of mobility of the legislation and of MPs.

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