For the first time on the treaty level, the Lisbon Treaty mentions the role of national parliaments in Article 12 (OJ C 306, 2007). The dynamics of strengthening the parliamentary dimension in the European Union (EU) were thereby accentuated, which also relates somewhat to the field of the Slovenian Presidency. Namely, accompanied by the annexed Protocol on the Role of National Parliaments in the EU, the Lisbon Treaty enhances the position of national parliaments in the EU policy-making process (COSAC, 2008: 7). Further, if we emphasise the specific role of the Slovenian National Assembly during the EU negotiation process (Fink Hafner and Lajh, 2008: 30), Slovenian parliamentary experience with the EU Presidency may emerge as being pivotal in terms of a stronger degree of national parliamentary involvement in the EU policy process. Results of a deputy cohesion analysis for the National Assembly in the 1994-2008 period indicate false hopes since the deputies voted in a very strategic manner and in line with the structural power of their corresponding political parties. Consequently, the perception of the impact of Europe on patterns of deputy cohesion can be attributed to the broad consensus of political elites regarding strategic goals since cohesion levels following the country's accession are returning to their usual paths seen in the early 1990s, where they also stayed for the period of the Slovenian Presidency. The lack of high levels of consensus from the era before accession and the perception of the Presidency as being a 'party project' may serve as a clear warning for intended processes of further (national) parliamentarianism of the Union and consequent attempts to resolve democratic legitimacy problems.
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