The interviews focus on the role of the UK parliament in EU affairs since the Lisbon Treaty came into effect in late 2009. They include interviews with parliamentary clerks, administrators and National Parliament Representatives from the UK. They result from the EUParlWatch project funded as part of the Open Research Area. The interviews from interviews in Warsaw will be uploaded in a separate file. Similar interviews were undertaken for France and Italy (by the Paris team), Denmark and the Netherlands (by the Maastricht team) and Germany and Slovakia (by the Cologne team). Further details of these interviews can be made available on request but have not been uploaded to the UK data service as they were not ESRC-funded. Quantitative data were also collected and the relevant data for the UK, Poland, Germany and Slovakia are also available in a separate submission.The role of national parliaments in European integration is a topical issue in current political and academic debates.The Lisbon Treaty significantly expands the influence of national parliaments in EU policy-making, introducing “Provisions on Democratic Principles” which stipulate that “national parliaments contribute actively to the good functioning of the Union”. Very little research has been done on the question of how these institutional reforms and new legal stipulations actually impact on the role of national parliaments in EU affairs in practice. This joint project with Cologne, Maastricht and Sciences Po addresses this gap and for the first time gathers comprehensive data on parliamentary involvement in EU affairs across all 27 Member States. It will carry out in-depth research on: parliamentary scrutiny of EU legislative processes parliamentary involvement in non-legislative EU policy processes, especially foreign policy parliamentary activity beyond the domestic arena (inter-parliamentary co-operation and contacts with EU institutions the parliamentary infrastructure in EU affairs (the role of parliamentary administrations, recruitment and socialisation). Cambridge will focus on (2), with special reference to EU foreign, security and defence policy. It will undertake in-depth case studies on the UK and Poland and cover Ireland and the Baltic States. The data deposited here are qualitative interviews collected by the Cambridge team in the UK and Poland. The interviews were done on a standard basis to meet the needs of all four project teams. Associated publications draw on a range of interviews including those available here and from partner institutes' interviews, which are not subject to the ESRC's data archiving rules. Other interviews may be available from colleagues in the Maastricht, Cologne and Paris teams. Please contact Julie Smith for additional information and/or contact details.
The interviews were semi-structured based on an set of questions agreed and used by all four research teams linked to OPAL. The generic questions are listed in a file in this submission. Questions were modified according to the particular country and interviewee but the general framework was consistent to provide comparability.
