Table Of ContentThe Challenge of Democratic Representation
in the European Union
The Challenge of
Democratic Representation
in the European Union
Edited by
Sandra Kröger
Marie Curie fellow,
Centre for European Governance,
University of Exeter, United Kingdom
and
Dawid Friedrich
Assistant Professor of International Relations,
Leuphana University of Lüneburg Germany
Editorial matter, selection, introduction and conclusion © 2012
© Sandra Kröger and Dawid Friedrich 2012
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First published 2012 by
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21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
Contents
List of Tables vii
List of Figures viii
List of Abbreviations ix
Acknowledgements xii
Notes on Contributors xiii
Introduction
1 Political Representation in the EU: A Second Transformation? 3
Sandra Kröger and Dawid Friedrich
Part I Who Represents Whom? Issues of Representativeness
2 Political Parties at the European Level: Do They Satisfy
the Condition of Programmatic Convergence? 23
Emmanuel Sigalas and Johannes Pollak
3 Interparliamentary Cooperation and Democratic
Representation in the European Union 41
Cristina Fasone
4 The Committee of the Regions and the Upgrading
of Subnational Territorial Representation 59
Simona Piattoni
5 Whom Do They Represent? Mixed Modes of Representation
in EU-Based CSOs 74
Håkan Johansson
6 Representing Their Members? Civil Society Organizations
and the EU’s External Dimension 92
Meike Rodekamp
Part II The Politics of Claims-Making
7 The Plural Representative Space: How Mass Media and National
Parliaments Stimulate Pluralism through Competition 117
Pieter de Wilde
v
vi Contents
8 A Media Perspective on Political Representation:
Online Claims-Making and Audience Formation
in 2009 EP Election Campaigns 135
Asimina Michailidou and Hans-Jörg Trenz
9 U nelected Representatives in the Europolitical Field:
CSOs between Berlin and Brussels 155
Erik Jentges
Part III Repercussions of the EU on Political Representation
10 From the Margins of European Integration to the Guardians
of the Treaties? The Role of National Parliaments in the EU 175
Tapio Raunio
11 T he Europeanization of Regional Assemblies: A Comparison
between Different Ways of Approaching the Representative
Challenge in EU Affairs 192
Elena Griglio
12 I nterest Representation in the EU – Is There Any?
A Top-Down Perspective 209
Stijn Smismans
13 D emocracy Promoter or Interest Defender? How the
European Commission Influences Non-Electoral
Representation by Civil Society Organizations 226
Sandra Kröger
14 Representing Workers or Presenting EU Prescriptions?
Trade Unions from Post-Socialist Member States in EU
Multi-Level Governance 241
Heiko Pleines
Conclusion
15 Transformation As Differentiation: The Diversity of
Representation in the European Union 259
Dawid Friedrich and Sandra Kröger
Bibliography 274
Index 301
Tables
2.1 Descriptive statistics of the 2009 European
elections manifestos 31
2.2 Issue salience in the PES members’ manifestos 33
2.3 Issue salience in the EPP members’ manifestos 35
2.4 Issue salience in the EGP members’ manifestos 36
2.5 Adoption rate of the European party federation
manifesto 37
3.1 Components and rate of attendance of EU political
interparliamentary meetings 50
5.1 EAPN membership 81
5.2 Profile of national networks 82
6.1 Member involvement as seen by Brussels staff 104
6.2 Member involvement as seen by member organizations 105
7.1 Percentages of representative claims in the media 124
7.2 Percentages of representative claims in parliament 125
8.1 The contours of the EU online public sphere 145
10.1 The functions of national parliaments in domestic
and EU politics 178
10.2 Categorization of the working documents of WGIV
in the convention 185
10.3 Categorization of COSAC reports 187
11.1 Functions played by regional assemblies in
EU affairs and parliamentary tools for the
endorsement of those functions 197
vii
Figures
3.1 N umber of multi-lateral interparliamentary meetings
per semester 48
3.2 I ssues debated in the EU political interparliamentary
meetings 51
5.1 EAPN organizational chart 84
6.1 Frequency of interaction 100
6.2 Satisfaction with communication 101
6.3 Member involvement in strategic decision-making 102
6.4 Member involvement in operational decision-making 103
6.5 Member satisfaction with interest representation 106
8.1 Number of evaluations per actor category and scope 147
8.2 N umber of evaluations per actor category, type of
transmission and location in text 148
8.3 T opics of threads (framing) within which EU evaluations
were found 149
8.4 P roportional distribution of evaluations of the current EU
political/constitutional set-up, per source type 150
viii
Abbreviations
A Austria
AER Assembly of European Regions
BverfG Bundesverfassungsgericht
(Federal Constitutional court)
CALRE C onference of European Regional Legislative
Assemblies
CAP Common Agricultural Policy
CDU Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands
(Christian Democratic Union of Germany)
CEMR Council of European Municipalities and Regions
CFSP Common Foreign and Security Policy
CoE Council of Europe
Com. Valenciana Comunidad Valenciana (Region of Spain)
COPREPA C onferencia de Presidentes de Parlamentos
Autonómicos
(Conference of the Chairmen of the Regional
Parliaments)
CoR Committee of the Regions (of the European
Union)
COSAC Conference of Parliamentary Committees for
Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European
Union
CSDP Common Security and Defence Policy
CSO Civil Society Organization
D Germany
DK Denmark
EAC European Affairs Committee
EAPN European Anti-Poverty Network
EC European Community
ECJ European Court of Justice
ECPRD European Centre for Parliamentary Research and
Documentation
EESC European Economic and Social Committee
EGP European Green Party
EN.CPS European Network for Civil Peace Services
ix
