National parliaments’ involvement in the activities aimed at overcoming the immigration crisis in the EU in the years 2015-2017

Abstract

Involvement of Member States’ parliaments in the debate on the problem of illegal migration to the EU has intensified in 2015 and 2016. The article discusses the powers of parliaments under the Treaty of Lisbon, allowing them to influence political processes in the migration, asylum and borders control policies in the EU. Article presents also the activities of parliaments in the years 2015-2017 regarding the legislative proposals on mechanism of relocation and resettlement and the reform of the Common European Asylum System. The results show that the instruments most frequently used by parliaments were: interparliamentary cooperation, control of compliance with the principle of subsidiarity and political dialogue. Due to the lack of necessary executive acts to control Europol’s activities, in 2015-2017 parliaments did not use the meetings of the Europol Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group in the area of freedom, security and justice. At the same time, it could be noted that the national parliaments of the Member States that opposed the admission of immigrants (mainly from Central and Eastern Europe) were more active in the EU than the parliaments of states with positive attitude towards relocation and resettlements program.