Abstract
In November 2009, European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek said that the Lisbon Treaty will improve the European Union's democratic functioning, for national parliaments and citizens alike, noting that it will increase contacts between the European Parliament and the national parliaments, and the Question Hour with the Commission and online streaming of the Committee meetings should bring their activities closer to the citizens. In fact, all these propositions were not included into the Treaty of Lisbon but some of them were. Thus, the relationship between national parliaments and the institutions of the European Union are closer than it was before. The institutional history of the European Union is complex and ambiguous. Indeed, after the edification of the ECSC, the national parliaments play used to play a major role notably designating the deputies of the first Assembly. Nevertheless, their prerogatives decreased in benefit of other institutions when the European Union was completely built with the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992.
