The enhancement of the powers of the European Parliament from Maastricht to Lisbon

Abstract

The European Parliament, formerly known as the Assembly, was given more powers overtime by the European Union through the ratification of several Treaties. The aim of this dissertation is to see how European Union Treaties have enhanced the legislative, budgetary and supervisory powers of the European Parliament. The main Treaties being examined are the Treaty of Maastricht of 1992, the Treaty of Amsterdam of 1997, the Treaty of Nice of 2001 and finally the Treaty of Lisbon of 2007. To see better the development of these powers, the Introduction of the dissertation contains the main powers the European Parliament had before the Treaty of Maastricht. The powers given to the European Parliament by these Treaties are going to be outlined in this dissertation. Moreover, in this dissertation one will see instances of how and when the European Parliament uses its powers. The reason why I chose to write about this subject is because the European Parliament played a significant role during my studies at University and it is one of the topics which I have most interest in.