Centre for Democracy, Accountability and Representation (CEDAR)

Leader of the group – Dr hab. Maciej Serowaniec, prof. NCU

Historically, the right to adopt the budget was the subject of the fights over democratic accountability and still constitutes the ‘crown jewels’ of parliamentary power. The ‘executive financial hegemony’ has affected parliaments for decades and is more or less evident depending on the system of Government. However, the economic and fiscal governance in the EU Member States has further complicated this picture. This evidence is further strengthened by the fact that the European measures of the new economic governance, urging tighter fiscal discipline in a predetermined timeframe, in principle reduce the room that national parliaments have for manoeuvre in a context like that of the EU where these legislatures have normally been considered as the ‘latecomers’ or the ‘losers’ of the European integration. CEDAR aims to explain accountability mechanisms in EU Economic Governance, defined as the ability to scrutinise and contest executive decisions by national parliaments (NPs) and to investigate the comparative political discourse on this policy area in EU Member States, embedded in the European institutional framework (Task 1). The CEDAR will also answer the question of how the EU Economic Governance rules may enhance domestic parliamentary accountability given the two objectives they aim to pursue: to counter the deficit bias of the Government and to re‐balance the information asymmetry on budgetary issues (Task 2).  Therefore, the CEDAR is innovative and important in developing democratic accountability mechanisms in the EU Member States. Hence, this project could also contribute to the debate on democracy in Europe.

The research team will include domestic and comparative constitutional law, EU law, public finance and economic scholars. CEDAR will be also supported by external researchers from Center for Parliamentary Studies LUISS Roma and Sciences Po Centre d’études europénnes and Faculty of Economics and Business University of Granada.

Dr hab. Maciej Serowaniec, prof. NCU – Associate Professor at the Department of Constitutional Law of the Faculty of Law and Administration of NCU in Toruń. Author of over 150 scientific publications. A principal investigator of the individual project “Supreme Audit Institutions in the constitutional systems of the Member States of the European Union”, funded by the National Science Center (grant No. 2018/02/X/HS5 /00047). Participated as a co-ordinator and investigator in the project “Responding to Emerging Dissensus: Supranational Instruments & Norms of European Liberal Democracy (Horizon Europe) and in the research project ”BETKOSOL – Better Knowledge for Better Solutions”, founded by the European Union’s Hercule III Programme). Laureate of the Scholarship of the Minister of Science and Higher Education for outstanding young scientists. Laureate of the European Court of Auditors Postgraduate Research Grant Programme (2022). A member of the ICON-S and Scientific Society in Toruń.