Rappresentanza Oltre lo Stato nazionale. Il Caso del Parlamento Europeo

The role of the European Parliament (EP) is still a major topic of investigation for the students of European studies. The development of this institution concerns both the institutional changes in the European Union (EU) and the efforts to reach a real democratic arrangement for the supranational institutions. During the last thirty years we have faced several reform treaties, concerning also the powers of the EP, but we still can’t precisely affirm what is the role of the EP in the institutional architecture of the Union. What seems quite evident is the weakness of the representative function, with a marginal position of the EP for what concerns the accountability function and the political support to the executive. The aim of this article is to suggest a valuable interpretation of the actual role of the EP and to explain how its growth in the European legislative process hasn’t fit with an empowerment in its representative function. According to this task, I propose to use the theoretical framework proposed by Stefano Bartolini, in order to understand what actually is “representation” in the EU.