The European Parliament elections in an academic perspective (28 days left to the Euroelections June 2009)

To what extent and in which areas can the Europarties’ campaigns be similar or different to national campaign styles?

By: Centre for European Studies

Academics should not only concentrate on analyzing and explaining the elections post-factum – that is, writing books and articles some time after the elections – but also to offer reliable accounts of valid political events as they are taking place. Contrary to most other blogs devoted to the European Parliament elections, my analytical perspective will usually include the historical reflections and comparisons to six previous direct EP elections, taking place since 1979, and will also offer a background and comparisons to the wider literature on the elections and political parties in general. In this sense, it will be both informative and polemic. I am convinced that there is a large number of Internet users who look for such type of analysis and by providing them with it I can contribute my small part to stimulate the debate on the EP elections in an EU-wide perspective. Furthermore, I do hope that some readers will take a little while to enrich this blog by commenting and discussing some of my thoughts, thereby writing it together with me.

The first group of entries will be devoted to the role of the political parties at the European level, also known as the Euro-parties. The Euro-parties should not be confused with the political groups in the European Parliament. Whereas the latter concentrate on the parliamentary activities, the former focus on coordinating the partisan activities within a much larger perspective, mainly but not exclusively, between national political parties. Among the largest and most well known Euro-parties are the European People’s Party (EPP), uniting Christian democrats and conservatives, the Party of European Socialists (PES) and the European Liberals Democrats and Reformers Party (ELDR). Altogether there are 10 Euro-parties. Political scientists agree that the notion of the ‘political party’ found in the names of the above mentioned organizations to a large extent differs from that of national political parties, mostly because they do not run for power and do not have direct membership. For many years the Europarties focused on developing the coordination mechanisms, building a space for communication and exchange of views, and developing a sense of commonality and shared goals. In other words, they used to be typical coordination forums or umbrella organizations for national political parties. Over time, the major Euro-parties also began to organize the summits of their leaders on the eve of the subsequent European Councils, thus entering much more visibly into the EU political system. What they are facing now – i.e. campaigning in the European Parliament elections – is an even more important change, as they been given a chance to contribute to the electoral success of their member parties, and thus, become relevant to all of them. However, how they can achieve this given the national-based, rather than European, focus of these elections? How can they fulfill their electoral role given that hardly any EU citizens know about their existence? To what extent and in which areas can the Europarties’ campaigns be similar or different to national campaign styles? These are just some topics that I will discuss in subsequent blogs, and I warmly invite you to read and comment on them.