The First Montesquieu Fellow: Wim Voermans - Montesquieu Institute

Starting on 1 July 2008, the Montesquieu Institute welcomes prominent researchers from Dutch and foreign universities who will contribute in fulfilling its research mission. These researchers will receive a fellowship at the institute.

The fellows will conduct research in the field of Dutch and/or European parliamentary history, as well as research on decision making within the European Union and its implementation and significance in the parliamentary systems of the member states.

The first Montesquieu fellow is Wim Voermans, Professor in Public and Administrative Law at the University of Leiden.

In his recent research Voermans focuses on the development of constitutional relations between institutions within the member states and the institutional bodies of the European Union.

Treaty changes, like the recent Treaty of Lisbon, are the most obvious alterations of these constitutional relations. But the constitutional rules of the game are also shifting in a less visible way. The constitutional law of the European Union is not only calibrated per treaty, but is also shaped by case law from the European Court of Justice. Furthermore, constitutional law is created through the practices that are developed in the legislative process between the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers and the European Commission.

These silent constitutional development processes have been of great value in the shaping of the European Union, but are also cause for a wider range of questions. Is it acceptable that the constitutional ground rules of the Union are created outside the treaties and without popular consent? Is 'integration by stealth', the principle introduced by Italian EU-specialist Majone, still a panacea, or should we learn from the several 'no's' in referenda on recent treaty changes that this prescription has lost its momentum? Questions like these form the centerpiece of the research program Trias Europea (on the relations between the governmental bodies within the EU and between the EU and the member states in a shifting constitutional landscape) at Leiden University.

In the period mentioned above Wim Voermans will spend his time as Montesquieu fellow researching which recent forms of silent constitutional development occur within the triangle European Parliament-European Commission-Council of Ministers (member states), and under which conditions these developments are acceptable or not and what their significance is.