Press

International Herald Tribune

European Parliament Wields a Wider Influence

By STEPHEN CASTLE

BRUSSELS - During tense talks on an international data-sharing deal last month, Hillary Rodham Clinton, the U.S. secretary of state, did something probably none of her predecessors needed to do: she picked up the phone and called the European Parliament.

Although a vote on the issue ultimately went against her, Ms. Clinton's aides may need to keep that phone number handy.

The Lisbon Treaty, which was introduced in December by the 27-country European Union, gave wide new powers to the bloc's directly elected Parliament, making it a newly influential player, analysts say.

For the first time, the European Parliament will be able to vote down international treaties, including trade deals.

With new parliamentary powers over civil liberties, agriculture, the E.U. budget and several other crucial areas, European lawmaking is destined to change.

The problem is that no one is really sure how.

"This is a Parliament not controlled by a majority that can turn it into a rubber stamp," said Richard Corbett, author of a book on the European Parliament and a former member of it. "It's a Parliament in the 19th-century sense, where you have to take things through, and have things negotiated."

Analysts and diplomats do agree that governments inside and outside the Union will increasingly have to take note of its actions.

"The Parliament is the biggest immediate beneficiary of the Lisbon Treaty," Thomas Klau of the European Council on Foreign Relations said. He described the 736-person assembly as being "one of the biggest power players" in the Union. Click here for more.