In the end, it could be a ‘no’. When does the European Parliament challenge the ratification of international agreements?

Bardou, Marine;Delreux, Tom
(2024) 12th Biennial Conference of the ECPR Standing Group on the European Union — Location: Universidade Nova, Lisbonne (19.June.2024)

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The ratification of most international agreements by the EU requires the consent of the European Parliament (EP). Yet, besides activating its veto power, the EP can also challenge the ratification of international agreements by delaying the consent procedure, by threatening to deny consent, or by a committee recommending to deny consent. Such ratification challenges affect the EP’s relation with the Commission. Indeed, the EP acts as the EU’s negotiator and can be confronted with a failure to deliver its international commitments. While the EP has indeed the powers to challenge the ratification of international agreements and while ratification challenges do sometimes happen, the EP also has an incentive to give its consent, for both reputational and policy reasons. Starting from this puzzle, the paper asks: under which conditions does the EP challenge the ratification of international agreements? We conduct a crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (csQCA) of 40 negotiations conducted since 2010. We distinguish three types of paths leading to ratification challenges. First, negotiations which are lowly salient but for which norms and principles are framed as being at stake in public discourses. Second, salient negotiations of agreements having a direct effect on the privacy and freedom of EU citizens. Third, salient negotiations of agreements impacting fisheries and agriculture but negotiated in an institutional context a priori favourable to conflict resolution.
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Bardou, M., & Delreux, T. (2024). In the end, it could be a ‘no’. When does the European Parliament challenge the ratification of international agreements? 12th Biennial Conference of the ECPR Standing Group on the European Union, Universidade Nova, Lisbonne. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/267974