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December 24th, 2014

Year in review: the 2014 European Parliament elections

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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Blog Team

December 24th, 2014

Year in review: the 2014 European Parliament elections

0 comments

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

The European Parliament elections were one of the year’s key political events. To mark the end of 2014 we’ve compiled the top five EUROPP articles on the elections and the negotiations over Jean-Claude Juncker’s appointment as European Commission President (by visits and shares on social media).

[separator top=”40″ style=”none”] [title size=”2″]1. Media coverage in Germany and the UK shows why both countries had radically different views over who should be the next Commission President[/title]

The so called ‘Spitzenkandidaten’ process, in which European-level political parties proposed formal candidates for President of the European Commission prior to the European Parliament elections, was strongly opposed by David Cameron and the British government. Following the elections, Simon Hix and Stuart Wilks-Heeg assessed differences in the media coverage of the Commission candidates in the UK and Germany. They illustrate that the candidates received substantially less coverage in the UK press, which may offer one reason for why both countries appeared to have completely different understandings of how European Parliament elections should work.

[separator top=”40″ style=”none”] [title size=”2″]2. In spite of their electoral success, populist parties remain disconnected from other parties domestically and transnationally[/title]

The European Parliament elections saw a number of populist, far-right and Eurosceptic parties gain representation. Alexandre Afonso writes that despite their success, the majority of these parties remain disconnected from other parties at the national and European levels. Presenting a network of European parties, he illustrates that those on the Eurosceptic-right and radical-left are still largely isolated from mainstream politics and the parties of government.

[separator top=”40″ style=”none”] [title size=”2″]3. The European Parliament elections show the increasingly fragmented nature of European party systems[/title]

Most coverage of the European Parliament elections has noted the rise of several far-right and Eurosceptic parties across Europe. Cas Mudde argues, however, that a more important trend was toward increasingly fragmented party systems. Presenting a series of numbers from the elections, he illustrates that ‘big parties’ are experiencing declining vote shares, with a greater number of smaller parties now competing for power in many EU countries.

[separator top=”40″ style=”none”] [title size=”2″]4. The European elections in Central and Eastern EU states illustrate that the rise of Euroscepticism was far from uniform across Europe[/title]

The key story to emerge from the European elections in countries like France and the UK was the rise of Euroscepticism, but does this narrative apply to all countries across Europe? Tim Haughton and Tereza Novotna present an analysis of the elections in four Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries: Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia. They write that while there has been a tendency to regard CEE states as distinct from those in Western Europe, this perspective is largely outdated and analyses of EU-wide political trends should pay as much attention to smaller states in the East as they do to larger states in the West. When adopting this perspective it is apparent that the rise in Euroscepticism was not a Europe-wide trend, but rather confined to individual countries.

[separator top=”40″ style=”none”] [title size=”2″]5. Jean-Claude Juncker’s new European Commission is the most ‘politicised’ in the institution’s history[/title]

Jean-Claude Juncker’s new European Commission officially entered office on 1 November. Arndt Wonka and Holger Döring write on the political profile of the new Commissioners, noting that in line with the growing politicisation of the institution over recent decades, the 28 members include a record share of former prime ministers and deputy prime ministers. The percentage of Commissioners who have a partisan affiliation with their country’s current government, and the percentage who have previously gained ministerial experience in national politics, are also at record levels in comparison to previous Commissions.

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Note: Interviews give the views of the interviewees, and not the position of EUROPP – European Politics and Policy, nor of the London School of Economics. Featured image credit: European Parliament (CC-BY-SA-ND-NC-3.0)

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