D71 - Social Choice; Clubs; Committees; AssociationsReturn

The paper enters the debate connected with the broad issue of alleged democratic deficit of the European integration. The authors follow one branch of this debate, i.e. the democratization through parliamentarization of the European Union. They develop David Kral's analysis of the functioning of EU affairs oversight in both chambers of the Czech Parliament. Regarding this issue, the authors emphasize the role of EU Affairs Committees within the oversight mechanism. They analyze the composition of such committees in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Czech Parliament, considering the concentration, continuity and specialization of the membership. In all these criteria, the EU Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies expresses lower concentration and continuity (both in time and in comparison with another standing committee and EU Affairs Committee of the Senate) and more fragmented specialization. These differences may contribute to different oversight performance of both chambers and the results of this exploratory analysis open further research possibilities on the strategies of parliamentary party groups regarding the nomination to these committees.