The European Parliament as an Accountability Forum

This book provides the first in-depth empirical study of the European Parliament’s powers of scrutiny of the executive in the European Union (EU), focusing on the politically salient field of the Economic and Monetary Union. The expansion of executive decision-making during the euro crisis was accompanied by an empowerment of the European Parliament through legislative oversight. This book examines how the European Parliament exercises that oversight on a day-to-day basis and thus contributes to political accountability at the EU level. Building on an innovative analytical framework for the study of parliamentary questions and answers, Adina Akbik sheds light on the European Parliament’s possibilities and limitations to hold EU executive bodies accountable more generally. Case studies cover the period 2012–2019 and include the European Central Bank in banking supervision, the European Commission, the Eurogroup, and the Economic and Financial Affairs Council. This book is Open Access.

Adina Akbik is Assistant Professor of European Politics at Leiden University and Affiliate Research Fellow at the Jacques Delors Centre of the Hertie School in Berlin. She was awarded her PhD summa cum laude at the Central European University and since then has published widely in leading journals.