During the last two decades the study of European foreign policy has experienced remarkable growth, presumably reflecting a more significant international role of the European Union. The Union has significantly expanded its policy portfolio and though empty symbolic politics still exists, the Union’s international relations have become more substantial and its foreign policy more focused. European foreign policy has become a dynamic policy area, being adapted to changing challenges and environments, such as the Arab Spring, new emerging economies/powers; the crisis of multilateralism and much more. The SAGE Handbook of European Foreign Policy, Two-Volume set, is a major reference work for Foreign Policy Programmes around the world. The Handbook is designed to be accessible to graduate and postgraduate students in a wide variety of disciplines across the humanities and social sciences. Both volumes are structured to address areas of critical concern to scholars at the cutting edge of all major dimensions of foreign policy. The volumes are composed of original chapters written specifically to the following themes: • Research traditions and historical experience • Theoretical perspectives• EU actors• State actors• Societal actors• The politics of European foreign policy• Bilateral relations• Relations with multilateral institutions• Individual policies• Transnational challenges The Handbook will be an essential reference for both advanced students and scholars.

National Parliaments

National parliaments
Wolfgang Wagner

Until recently, scholars of European foreign policy have treated national parliaments with benign neglect. This negligence reflected the marginal role national parliaments played in European foreign policy-making. In fact, before the Lisbon Treaty (2009) the involvement of national parliaments in European foreign policymaking did not have a basis in EU Treaty law. Although national parliaments as such entered EU Treaty law with the Maastricht Treaty (1993), it was not before the Lisbon Treaty that they were mentioned in connection with foreign and security policy: Article 10 of the Protocol No 1 on the Role of National Parliaments in the European Union states that a

conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs may submit any contribution it ...

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