In this issue of the EU3D Insights, Francis Brendan Jacobs reflects on the European Parliament's main developments and its relations with other EU institutions from his personal experience of almost four decades working at the EP.
As the European Union (EU) faces new challenges for the future it is instructive to look back at the journey on which it has already embarked, at the rapid institutional changes of the last 40 years and at the changing nature of the interaction between EU institutions. During this period the formal and informal role of the European Parliament (EP) has greatly evolved and although this has varied from sector to sector it has gradually become a much more influential partner of the Commission and Council.
This insight seeks to provide a personal perspective on these changes, as seen by a European Parliament staff member from 1979-2016 and as an interested observer since his retirement. Inevitably it consists of a series of subjective snapshots and focuses more on those developments which the author witnessed at first hand, especially on legislative developments and on the EP role on EU appointments in the 1980s and 1990s. It provides insights into the balance between formal and informal institutional changes affecting the European Parliament and its evolving relationships with the Commission, Council and decentralised EU agencies.
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