ABSTRACT
The relations between the European Parliament (EP) and the national parlia-
ments (NPs) of the EU Member States have attracted considerable interest
over the last decade. Before the 1990s, both public awareness and academic
interest were low. One can assume that two processes caused this situation
to change gradually: first the remarkable ascension of the EP, since the
application of the Single European Act (SEA), then enforced in Maastricht
and Amsterdam, from a clearly secondary institution to an important
co-actor in EU decision-making, and, secondly, the growing awareness in
the Member States that, with regard to the Maastricht revision and the
heated disputes it originated, the EU did matter after all, and that NPs had
better catch up with this fact.
