The Treaties of Paris and Rome envisaged the possibility of direct elections to the European parliamentary assembly from the outset. Since the early 1960s, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have been active on this issue and in 1976 they got satisfaction, with the Act on the direct election of the European Parliament. Since then, the European Parliament has constantly tried to obtain its reform in order to reinforce the European dimension of this election, and to strengthen its own powers within the Union’s political system. It has met with little success, due to its own divisions and those of the Council. It nevertheless continues to request a reform of the 1976 Electoral Act, and the Spitzenkandidaten procedure is now central to its initiatives. The European Parliament would like to see it institutionalised and to create a legal obligation for the European Council to appoint the ‘leading candidate’ of the winning European party as President of the European Commission. This request is linked to many other proposals, aiming to reinforce the supranational nature of the ballot, to mobilise voters or to elect some MEPs on transnational lists. This chapter aims to take stock of this complex debate, which has been the subject of recent initiatives by the European Parliament, and has also been raised by the Conference on the Future of Europe. It will also highlight the uncertainties and ambiguities that accompany a possible institutionalisation of Spitzenkandidaten.

Examining the EU through the lenses of political science, history, law, sociology and international political economy, the Companion provides a holistic outline of the methodological controversies and core theoretical approaches in European studies. Taking a closer look into the governance of and regulation within the EU, chapters consider its range of actors and decision-making processes before exploring the regulation and redistributive policies of the internal market. Forward-thinking, the Companion concludes with a discussion of the EU's strategies in responding to issues of increasingly global significance, including climate change, migration and war. Reflecting on the evolution of politics beyond the nation-state, it predicts a shift in the EU's raison d'être from inward narratives of internal prosperity to outward narratives of increasingly competitive international power.

This book makes a major contribution to our understanding of how the European Union influences national politics and how the national response to Europe can serve as a channel of accountability in the European Union. The authors engage fundamental questions relating to national elections and European issues with an eye to explaining the dynamics of EU political support and opposition in Belgium, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain. The authors come to grips with these questions using extensive original data on EU coverage in the national media, parliamentary debates, and online surveys.

This open access book provides the first ever authoritative collection of scholarly insights, based upon original research, into the political groups of the EP tackling the fundamental changes since the Lisbon Treaty and the upsurge of radical right parties. It analyses political groups and their importance from multiple perspectives critically assessing their role and significance in EU politics. Each chapter is authored by leading scholars in the field, working on key topics in relation to political groups: political group formation and function, their role in parliamentary and EU policy-making, the way that Eurosceptic MEPs influence (or not) the Parliament, and the nature and form of interactions with external actors.

Starting from the observation that the EU now possesses many of the attributes of modern political systems, Hix and Høyland take an innovative approach to analysing, researching and teaching the European Union. Using the general theories of political science to understand how the EU works, this text covers each of the main processes in the EU political system - executive, legislative and judicial politics, public opinion, interest groups and democracy, and regulatory, monetary and foreign policies - introducing the key political science tools, reviewing the relevant theories, and applying the knowledge in detailed descriptive analysis. As well as incorporating new data and the latest research, this new edition examines the consequences of the dramatic political and policy developments in the EU over the past decade. The methodology used in the text makes the political system of the EU accessible to political science students as a whole, as well as those specifically studying and researching the EU.

Departing from the idea that political controversies are embedded in the very framework of European integration, this volume focuses on the relationship between politicisation and European democracy. The contributors to this edited volume trace the various ways of understanding ‘politicisation’ before and beyond the 2019 European elections. The aim is to offer constructive reinterpretations of the concept for further research in the field. Encompassing different approaches, the book shows a plurality of perspectives and provides innovative analytical tools to make sense of the phenomenon of politicisation in the EU context.

Informed by and against the backdrop of the 2019 European Parliament (EP) elections, this innovative book provides a critical assessment of where Europe stands in terms of the quest for achieving democratic legitimacy. Since the 2014 EP elections, the European Union (EU) has experienced multiple crises, which have arguably undermined its legitimacy. The 2019 EP elections were hence seen as a crucial moment in the EU's efforts to show resilience and regain trust. Using political science and legal frames of analysis, the book provides an understanding and assessment of the current politico-legal framework, and its impact on European elections. Furthermore, using original data, it provides a timely examination of public opinion issue priorities and voting behaviour at the 2019 EP elections in eight countries.

This unique collection of data includes concise definitions and explanations relating to all aspects of the European Union. It explains the terminology surrounding the EU, and outlines the roles and significance of its institutions, member countries, foreign relations, programmes and policies, treaties and personalities. It contains over 1,000 clear and succinct definitions and explains acronyms and abbreviations, which are arranged alphabetically and fully cross-referenced. Among the 1,000 entries you can find explanations of and background details on: ACP states, Article 50, Brexit, competition policy, Donald Tusk, the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, the euro, Greece, Jean-Claude Juncker, Europol, migration and asylum policy, the Schengen Agreement, the Single Supervisory Mechanism, the single rulebook, the Treaty of Lisbon, Ukraine.

This book sheds light on how the increasing prominence of Eurosceptic and nationalist parties is having an impact on the thinking of mainstream parties, their representatives in the European Parliament, and the future of Europe. It is timed to coincide with the strategic vision of Council, Commission, and Parliament, as well as the next phase of Brexit negotiations. The book provides perspectives on the future of the European project from authors in all the EU Member States, as well as neighboring European countries and potential applicant nations. Furthermore, it includes a Foreword by the Vice-president of the European Parliament.

Is Euroscepticism still suited to analyze the variegated nature of opposition to the EU? Starting from this question, this book critically reviews Euroscepticism, reconceptualizes it in terms of political opposition and discovers, disentangles and explains patterns of EU-opposition within the European Parliament (EP). Distinguishing between "what the EU does" and "what the EU is", the research elaborates an index of parties' positioning "measuring" it through the speeches that parties' deliver in the EP. The EP is the "perfect laboratory" where decisions concerning EU-policies are taken and the future EU- trajectories are shaped. Besides delineating a set of guidelines categorizing parties, the book concludes that their positioning varies along two main axes: the pro-anti-EU- system and the pro-anti-EU-establishment. From a normative perspective, the research argues for the growing importance of the "cumulation hypothesis": if criticism remains unheard within the European elitist construct, such criticism will transform itself into rejection.

This book sets out to analyse the relationship between people and parliament in the European Union and the problem of participation in European Parliament elections. It begins by examining the concepts of democracy and legitimacy as applied to the supranational level of governance, by briefly reviewing approaches to the study of turnout, including the approach embodied in the second‐order‐election model, and by describing the main features of the survey (Eurobarometer 41.1, (1994)) on which the study is based. The book summarizes the trends in turnout in European Parliament elections and makes a key distinction between circumstantial and voluntary abstention. This is followed by a series of chapters dealing with attitudes to European integration, the European Parliament, and European elections, each chapter concluding with a bivariate analysis of the relationship between such attitudes and participation/abstention in European Parliament elections.