The political dialogue

Even before the Treaty of Lisbon went into force, certain mechanisms focusing on direct consultation between national Parliaments and the European Commission were introduced at the latter's initiative. The aim of the new initiatives was to encourage better involvement of national Parliaments in EU activities by ensuring a framework for the expression of their opinions on draft EU legislative acts as well as on all other important issues.

The institution of political dialogue was launched in 2006 by José Manuel Barroso, the former President of the European Commission, such that draft EU legislative acts would be transmitted not only to EU co-legislators but also directly to the national Parliaments. The objective of the Barroso initiative was to create an informal framework for dialogue between the European Commission and the national Parliaments on different sectoral issues, draft legislative acts and consultation documents. This exchange of information and views on draft legislative acts and consultation documents is broader than the subsidiarity verification mechanism regulated by the Treaty of Lisbon. All in all, the essence of the initiative is the possibility of opinion.

The Hungarian regulations

Pursuant to Act XXXVI of 2012 on the National Assembly and Parliamentary Resolution 10/2014 (24 February 2014) on certain regulations of the Rules of Procedure, the Committee on European Affairs might examine any EU draft and transmit its opinion thereof to the European Commission without any constraint regarding the content or the timeframe. The plenary of the National Assembly does not take part in this unregulated mechanism. The Committee on European Affairs shall inform the Speaker on the opinion formed within the framework of the political dialogue.

The opinions issued by the Committee on European Affairs of the Hungarian National Assembly within the framework of the political dialogue are available on the platform for EU interparliamentary exchange, the IPEX website.