Each national parliament of the EU-25 has put in place scrutiny procedures to reinforce democratic control over EU matters and to ensure democratic accountability in EU decision making. However, there are, of course, considerable differences between the types of scrutiny system that the national parliaments have established. This�page offers an overview of the different processes by which national parliaments scrutinise EU affairs.
In most national parliaments, a European affairs committee is at the heart of the scrutiny procedure, though in a number of parliaments sectoral committees also participate in the scrutiny process, typically by providing specialist advice to European affairs committees in the early stages of EU decision making. The arrangements adopted for detailed committee scrutiny in the 37 parliamentary chambers of the 25 national parliaments are to a great extent dependent on the type of scrutiny system chosen by each parliamentary chamber.
Some chambers have chosen a �document based� system which puts a focus on the scrutiny of EU documents, while others have developed procedures which empower their European affairs committees to give a direct mandate to their governments before ministers can endorse legislation in Council meetings. A small group of parliaments have chosen more informal channels of influence. In practice, many systems can be seen as hybrids, containing elements from both a �document based� and a mandating model.
