Características del Aprendizaje Significativo

The Chamber of Deputies attributed more and more competences and personnel to its administration to deal with EU politics. The European Unit “Cellule Européenne” was created in 2006 within the International Relations Department as part of the Chamber’s “European strategy”. The International Relations Department is composed of nine to ten civil servants, six of which belong to the “Cellule Européenne” (Interview 1, 2017). However, in practice, only three staff deal regularly with EU affairs. Due to the small size of the structures dealing with EU affairs, civil servants tend to have generalist profiles and their expertise is thus limited (Spreitzer, In: Hefftler/Neuhold/Rozenberg/Smith, 2015; Interview 1, 2017). Interviewees from the European Unit all have a study background close to their current functions. They studied either International Relations, Political Science or Law. The low number of personnel in the administrative structures forced them to move from one position to the other, sometimes occupying positions with no link to their current or former ones. While one civil servant had a long-lasting career in several administrative departments without direct link to EU affairs, switching from the department managing the plenary sessions to the International Relations Department, most had experiences in structures dealing more or less with EU politics. Some worked in the Secretariat of the Committee on Foreign and European Affairs, Defence, Cooperation and Migration (EAC), others worked for the COSAC secretariat, the Parliament’s representation in Brussels and the Benelux parliament. Prior to their position in parliament, some civil servants also exerted functions in International Organisations or trade union representations in Brussels. In general, the staff from the European Unit has extensive professional experience and a long-term interest in European matters. Their diversified experience within the parliamentary administration provided them with a generalist profile and a deeper knowledge of the Chamber’s functioning. Their flexibility is thus also a factor explaining the absence of specialisation. With regard to EU affairs, civil servants can benefit from trainings if their technical knowledge needs to be improved (Interview 1, 2017).

The European Unit’s main task consists in selecting and classifying incoming EU documents to redistribute them to parliamentary committees. The European Commission transfers directly all EU documents (legislative proposals, Green and White books) to the European Unit of the Chamber through an email address common to its staff. In the Chamber of Deputies, the selection is made through a programme. In 2008, the parliamentary administration developed its IT programme to optimise the management of EU documents and their selection. The system is still in continuous evolution. The establishment of tables grouping all incoming EU documents first started on paper when the European Commission decided to fine Member States for their delays in the implementation of EU directives (Interview 1, 2017). Changes in the selection system happened also after 2006 in the framework of the Chamber’s “European Strategy” and accelerated with the Treaty of Lisbon and the attached protocols on national parliaments. The first established procedure consisted in sending letters to the

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Government six months before the implementation deadline, to draw the attention on the need to submit a draft implementation law. The IT programme was created to ensure a follow-up of these matters. The programme facilitates the classification of EU documents according to their type and level of emergency. It contains information on the uploaded documents, the follow-up of the transfer process, the analyses made by the committees, the guests invited in committees and finally the follow-up of implementations. A person in the European Unit is responsible for the management of the table and the programme. EU documents are classified into A and B documents depending on their significance for the parliament or Luxembourg.

The table in electronic format is updated and uploaded every week on the Parliament’s website. “A” documents are those without special political, economic, financial or legislative importance, such as documents transferred in the framework of the subsidiarity control and the political dialogue (Interview 13, 2017). “B” documents are those relevant for Luxembourg and necessitating further examination. Only B documents are considered for the elaboration of reasoned opinions in the framework of the subsidiarity monitoring. The European Unit also makes suggestions on which parliamentary committee might be concerned with the EU documents. Once the selection is established, the table is transferred to the EAC, which can rearrange it according to its own political interests. Every Monday morning, the EAC amends and adopts the table during its meeting. The civil servant responsible for the secretariat of the EAC is responsible for the transfer of the table to the committee. The secretary participates in the meetings of the EAC and informs the rest of the International Relations Department about the committee’s opinion on the table (Interview 1, 2017). Once the table is adopted, the civil servants from the European Unit send appeal letters (“lettres de renvoi”) to each sectoral committee, signed by the President of the Chamber. Once the committee receives the letter, it is free to analyse the matter or not. It might then happen that documents classified as A documents are perceived as politically more significant for MPs.

The transversality of EU matters renders the classification of documents and the attribution of competences difficult. Indeed, for a same issue, several parliamentary committees might be concerned. The final decision thus belongs to MPs, who can change the suggestions in the table. Sometimes, a sectoral committee can also decide to transfer the received EU document to another committee, if it considers that the matter does not fit its competences. The staff from the European Unit also supports the work of sectoral committees when EU issues fall into their competences by providing them with summaries. The support of the European Unit is particularly needed in the framework of the subsidiarity monitoring, when sectoral committees handle matters falling in their respective competences. One civil servant in the European Unit is also IPEX correspondent and member of the IPEX board. The IPEX correspondent is responsible for the upload of opinions adopted by the whole chamber on the IPEX website. Any information on the intention of a parliamentary committee to issue a reasoned opinion is also submitted on the IPEX website, so that national parliaments get informed about the Chamber’s intention and can coordinate their actions (Interview 1, 2017).

In the framework of their daily tasks, staff from the European Unit and the parliamentary administration in general have very few contacts to the staff from ministries. Eventual contacts happen via exchanges of email if information is needed on a dossier, but no common meetings

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are scheduled (Interview 1, 2017). The same applies to professional chambers, where no direct contact exists. At some point, the European Unit was sending the tables with EU documents to the professional chambers, but stopped it when they started to be published on the Parliament’s website. However, in case a parliamentary committee issued a reasoned opinion, the European Unit transfers it via email to the professional chambers. Moreover, whenever a professional chamber wishes to submit an opinion to the Chamber, it passes directly through the committees and not the parliamentary administration (Interview 1, 2017).

Other tasks of the European Unit consist in preparing delegation trips to interparliamentary conferences. While the logistics of such delegations are organised by the Service of Protocol, the political preparation remains in the hands of the International Relations Department. Civil servants prepare files for MPs containing briefings, notes and press articles. Each staff from the European Unit follows several delegations due to the small size of the structure and the lack of personnel (Interview 5, 2017). On the European level, the Chamber established a temporary representation in Brussels in 2004 in the framework of Luxembourg’s EU Presidency. The position became permanent in 2006 when several other national parliaments decided to create such a function. As an intermediary between the Chamber and European institutions, the parliamentary representative in Brussels participates in the European Parliament’s committee meetings depending on the topics on the agenda and their salience for Luxembourg. Every three or four weeks, the representative sends a Brussels report (“Bulletin de Bruxelles”) to the parliamentary administration, MPs and group collaborators in charge of EU affairs, summing up the current issues on the European level. On an everyday basis, the representative is constantly in touch with the civil servants from the European Unit and follows the work of the EAC and other sectoral committees. The parliamentary representative maintains also close contacts to representations from other national parliaments. This is facilitated by the fact that all offices of the parliamentary representations are situated within the premises of the European Parliament. Every Monday, institutionalised meetings called “Monday Morning Meetings” are scheduled between parliamentary representatives to exchange on current topics and coordinate their position.