Failure or long-haul? European elections and European integration

The impact of the direct election of the European Parliament is assessed with reference to the hopes of the proponents of European integration—increased weight for the Parliament, legitimacy for the institutions and achievements of European integration, and the development of trans-national political forces. Particular examination is made of the low level of turnout in the elections, of the absence of any Community-wide focus on personalities or on issues in the campaign and of the problems of the Socialist, Christian Democratic and Liberal party federations. One effect offering an integrative prospect is the emerging élite of full-time trans-national politicians.     

The European Council and The Council of the European Union: Shapers of a European Confederation

The European Council and the Council of the European Union playkey roles in the European Union. The European Council is largelyconcerned with system-steering, while the Council of the EUundertakes sectoral policymaking. What is common to these rolesis the balancing act carried out by both institutions. Bothhave to mediate the centripetal dynamics of integration, termedcooperative confederalism here, and the centrifugal dynamicswhich are found in the strongly entrenched territorial natureof power, centered on the member states. Using new institutionalistanalysis, the article illuminates different facets of the twoinstitutions1 functioning in mediating the two dynamics.     

Broadcasting European elections

Television presentation of the 1984 European parliamentary elections is described and compared with equivalent features of the broadcast campaigns of 1979. Arrangements for party broadcasting were broadly similar almost everywhere. But news value judgements were applied more strictly to news bulletin and current affairs provision, typically resulting in reduced attention. Domestic appeals played a greater part in many parties' campaigns this time (in contrast to arguments over European issues). And impressions of weak audience interest were often a focus of comment. The problems of mounting a more satisfying European campaign in the future may depend, however, not on exhorting journalists and politicians to do better, but on a strengthening of the European Parliament in the power structure of the European Community.     

National versus European: Party Control over Members of the European Parliament

This article examines different strategies of national governmental parties to influence ‘their’ Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), posing the following questions: Do national parties try to control voting behaviour of their MEPs? And do control mechanisms enhance the probability that an MEP toes a national party line rather than following his or her European party group? The analysis reveals differences between individual parties, indicating that at least some national parties actively attempt to control their MEPs. Furthermore, the article evaluates the success of the various approaches, taking compliance with the position of the minister in the Council as a benchmark. The results show that the overall effect of control mechanisms remains small. Instead of toeing the line of their national party's minister, MEPs tend to vote with their European group.     

European air combat capabilities

The United Kingdom electorate's unanticipated vote to leave the European Union risks worrying NATO allies about the UK's reliability as a defence partner at a time when Russian threats appear to be rising. To allay this concern, the British government could expand its customary multinational collaboration with European partners on defence aerospace projects, such as a new crewed combat aircraft.     

European elections: Sweden

A preliminary count of the votes of the election on 17 September 1979 gave the Social Democrats and Communists a majority in the unicameral Riksdag. But with the counting of postal votes (especially those from abroad) it soon became apparent that the three non‐Socialist parties in the Riksdag—the so‐called ‘bourgeois’ parties— would maintain their hairsbreadth parliamentary majority. The final count tipped the balance, and the bourgeois parties won a majority of a single seat (compared with one of eleven in the previous parliament). The electoral system is designed to reflect an exact proportionality of representation for parties whose support exceeds four per cent of the total vote. The turnout of around 91 per cent was slightly lower than in 1976, but remained at the high level characteristic of the 1970s.     

The European Parliament elections

The recent European Parliament elections did not produce the long-feared triumph of illiberal anti-European Union forces, and indicate that voters remain strongly attached to the European project. Yet they highlighted and contributed to increasingly fragmented and unstable national and supranational European politics, suggesting that the EU may become a less effective transatlantic partner and security actor.     

European elections—Greece

This article discusses the implications for the German federal system of incorporating the new Länder of eastern Germany following German unification in 1990. It begins by examining the relationships between federation and Läander — commonly termed ‘cooperative’ federalism — which developed in the Federal Republic after its foundation. It then discusses how the integration of the new Länder in the east has added to and seriously exacerbated a range of tensions which had begun to emerge in ‘cooperative’ federalism prior to 1990, before moving on to outline the Länder contribution to the debate on reforming the federal system which was made possible under the terms of unification. This debate was, it is argued, an opportunity missed by the Länder — or, more precisely, was one they were incapable of taking ‐ to shore up and strengthen their position as an effective counterbalance to the federation in united Germany.