The EU needs more political conflict to get voters interested in the European Parliament elections (37 days left to the Euroelections June 2009)

The overall intensification of political competition at the EU level should be seen in a particular context indicating the importance of the 2009 elections.

Source: Centre for European Studies [edited]
By : DR WOJCIECH GAGATEK

Many political scientists have long been arguing that the lack of connection between the results of the elections and the subsequent composition of the European Commission has been one of the key obstacles to the emergence of a pan-European political debate, and ultimately, for increased voters’ attention. From the point of view of the Euro-parties, it has led to the effect that so far they have not shaped their campaigns around their approval or criticism of the previous Commission (as would be the case nationally with the governing and opposition parties), but instead have focused on their ideas and solutions for the EU without much reference to the previous commission’s record. Most Euro-parties were further complaining that their electoral role and a real partisan, pan-European campaign, cannot be fully developed until the introduction of a common, pan-European constituency. In other words, without changes within the EU’s institutional environment, not much change was predicted.

However, this campaign seems to be going in another direction. In a certain sense it confirms that the greater politicisation of EP elections does not solely depend on the institutional changes within the EU architecture. I mean here the emergence of a stronger political competition between the EPP and the PES and the unprecedented level of direct criticism of one against the other, both within their manifestoes, but also in the declaration of their leaders. The overall intensification of political competition at the EU level should be seen in a particular context indicating the importance of the 2009 elections. First of all, the fact that President Barroso decided to run for the next term as the Commission President, and that the EPP has recently supported his candidature, makes it more likely to structure the campaign based on the Commission’s governing record (even though the Commission is not only composed of its president). Secondly, both the EPP and the PES have accepted that the political family that wins the European Parliament elections will have the right to nominate the candidate for the Commission Presidency from their own ranks. If, then, the EPP’s opponents treat the candidature of Jose Manuel Barroso as a partisan one, it seems reasonable to expect a counter candidate coming from the coalition of the PES and some other Euro-parties, such as the Greens, who recently adopted the resolution entitled “Stop Barroso”. All these changes can in effect raise the citizen’s interest in these elections and show that there is something at stake that they need to pay attention to. The problem is, however, that unless at least a part of the national campaign is centred on EU affairs, rather than, as it is now a commonplace tendency, focused on the national issues, the intensification of the above political and partisan conflict at the EU level may not reach the citizens. It all depends on the political will of the national party elites and also of the national mass media to report on it, and any institutional changes are not a prerequisite for it. However, the first steps in politicising the EP election have been already made at the EU level and it will be extremely interesting to observe the direction in which it will develop.