Inter-parliamentary rivalry has inhibited effective oversight of EU economic governance after the crisis

The third meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Economic and Financial Governance (IPC-EFG) will begin on 29 September in Rome. Ian Cooper writes on the development of the IPC-EFG, which emerged from the Fiscal Compact treaty signed by 25 EU member states in 2012 as a mechanism for allowing greater parliamentary oversight of EU economic governance. He writes that while the conference has so far been undermined by internal debates over how it should be structured, the meeting in Italy will offer a fresh opportunity to resolve some of these outstanding questions and enable the IPC-EFG to start performing its role more effectively.