ABSTRACT
Research on the Europeanisation of parliamentary systems generally focuses
on two aspects. Firstly, the process of European integration has affected the
powers and the institutional position of national parliaments. It has led to a
transfer of a large part of legislative competencies from the national to the
European level, resulting in a loss of legislative sovereignty of national parlia-
ments. In addition, European legislation provides for a framework that
national parliaments have to take into account when exercising their remain-
ing legislative competencies. As Annette To¨ller has shown for the German
Bundestag, about a third of domestic legislation is today influenced by
some kind of European impulse.1 In single policy fields, the percentages are
highest in agricultural (72 per cent), environmental (69 per cent) and econ-
omic policy (45.5 per cent).2
