Synoptic Vision of the National Parliaments of the European Union

Abstract

The study of national Parliaments in the European Union constitutes not only a useful complement, but also a required one when the in-depth and systematic analysis of our own Cortes Generales (Congress of Deputies and Senate) is addressed. This is so due to the fact that all what concerns Europe is of cultural interest to Spain and equally affects the country politically. Likewise our Constitution has adopted not only a few of its main and more definitive features from the Constitutions of some of the other Member States’ fundamental texts. The examination of the dimension, composition and election procedure of the abovementioned Parliaments and of their main functions help to propose or suggest some reforms, as the following ones: i) relinquishing the proportional representation in big provincial constituencies, replacing it by a two-round majoritarian system for single-member districts of a smaller dimension, ii) exhausting the constitutional maximum threshold of 400 deputies in order to alleviate the under-representation of the large urban centers face the least populated provinces, iii) introducing a mixed system such as the German one, with half of the seats allocated to single-member districts and the other half to party lists in big provincial or regional constituencies, iv) raising the minimum threshold of seats allocation to the 5% of the validly cast votes in the constituency, in case of preserving the current proportional representation and v) granting more powers to the Senate or, at least, more independence in the exercise of the competences that now holds.