Research

Comparative Study on EU Member States Consultations with Civil Society on European Policy Matters
 

In December 2009 EUDO won a tender from the European Social and Economic Committee ( EESC ) to produce a comparative study on member state consultations with civil society on European policy matters. The aim of the study is to map and analyse consultation with civil society at the national level, in order to offer policy advice on how to improve EESC-led consultative processes. The project is led by Didier Chabanet, who is supported by a team of appointed country experts consisting of EUI researchers and external fellows trained in the field. They will collect and analyse information about the way in which the `voice` of civil society is represented, not only at the national level, but in particular through EESC-led consultative processes. The study contains 27 national reports and a cross-country comparison.    

The study was concluded in December 2010 and the first part of the study was published in the EESC studies series. To access the study, click here . 

 

EU Profiler 

Access now the first, preliminary output of the EU Profiler! Explore the positions of political parties    in all 30 European countries. And explore the interactive 3-D Political Landscape  for each country, representing the answers of almost one million users across all Europe! 

For details about the EU Profiler and how it works, click here  or check out Help   or the Frequently Asked Questio ns  sections of the Profiler.

Development of a Transnational Party System in Europe
 

In November 2009, the OPPR won a tender of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs of the European Parliament for writing a report on “How to Create a Transnational European Party System?”. The report, written in the first half of 2010 by four OPPR researchers under the direction of Prof. Bardi and Prof. Mair, analyses the factors that could affect the development of a full-fledged party system at EU level, and is divided into four parts: 1) An analysis of the political doctrine and programme of major political parties in as many Member States as feasible; 2) An examination of current procedures applied to political parties to choose leaders for European Office; 3) The development of proposals on how to help a European political party system evolve from national structures strongly influenced by historical traditions and cultural factors; 4) The development of suggestions regarding the extent to which the European electoral system and different systems of party financing would have to be revised in order to facilitate the above.

The preliminary results of the report have been presented on 2 June before the Committee on Constitutional Affairs and the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs of the European Parliament, whereas the final version of the report has been published by the Europan Parliament in early October. One of the core conclusion reached by the report is that we need to distinguish between the phenomenon of transnationalisation of political parties and the phenomenon transnationalisation of their party system. Much of the evidence examined in the report points to the increasing transnationalisation of the parties, and reveals that there are relatively few obstacles to large-scale convergence across Europe. Despite this convergence, however, there is still little progress towards the formation of a transnational party system. At the level of competition between parties, in other words, national boundaries and national identities remain paramount. In the concluding remarks, the report formulates and discusses some ways in which these latter barriers might be lowered, and the implications of such a change. 

To access the report, click here . 

 

Study commissioned by the S&D group:“Legislating after Lisbon. New Opportunities for the European Parliament” 

At the beginning of 2010, EUDO was commissioned by the Socialists and Democrats group (S&D)  of the European Parliament (EP) to study the impact of the Lisbon Treaty on the EP. To do so, the study mainly analyses the following four topics. First, how and in which policy areas the extension of co-decision can get the EP closer to citizens’ daily concerns and can reinforce the visibility of the EP. Second, how the influence of the EP towards other EU institutions can be maximised (focusing above all on newly established President of the Council, the High Representative and the External Action Service). Thirdly, the study analyses the reinforcement of national parliaments and its linked opportunities and challenges for the EP. Finally, the study sheds some light on the enhanced role of civil society under the Lisbon Treaty (above all on the Citizens’ Initiative) and on how the EP can maximize its political impact in cooperation with civil society.

The study, which was led by Professors Alexander H. Trechsel  and Bruno de Witte , was concluded in April and was published in July 2010. To access the study, click here . 

ELECDEM 

Since autumn 2009, the RSCAS participates in a new Marie Curie Initial Training Network (ITN) called “ELECDEM: Training Network in Electoral Democracy”. ELECDEM brings together 11 expert teams from 9 European countries to provide substantive and methodological training in voting behaviour and elections research to a cohort of early stage and experienced researchers. The objective of the network and associated projects is to evaluate the functioning of democracies in the context of globalisation and technological and institutional change.

The ITN will run for four years with Prof. Mark Franklin, SPS Department and co-Director of the EUDO Observatory on Public Opinion, being the scientist in charge at the EUI. Dr. Danilo di Mauro is the Marie Curie Fellow at the EUI in charge of ELECDEM (September 2010 – August 2011).

Further information on ELECDEM and planned workshops and events can be found at: http://www.elecdem.eu/ 

 

Puzzled by Policy 

EUDO formed part of a larger consortium that won, in December 2009, a tender in the framework of the European Commission’s “Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme”, ICT Policy Support Programme (Objective Theme 3: ICT for governance). The project aims to end the often felt detachment of citizens from policy-making by providing all citizens – regardless of their literacy skills or subject matter knowledge – a unique platform/portal to learn about policy at the EU level where they can find out what particular policies mean to them on the national level so that they can contribute to policy drafting and impact assessments. Equally important, Puzzled by Policy will help decision makers at both the National and European level better understand the impact of their policies on constituents by providing citizen reactions. In contributing to this large project, EUDO will mainly use its experiences gained with the EU Profiler and will develop components that allow citizens to profile their ideas on selected policy-making issues.  The project started in October 2010.

 

EUDO Spotlight 

EUDO Spotlight focuses its analyses on public opinion reactions to the most recent issues at stake in the European political agenda, showing how they affect European democracy. It presents periodic reports on mainstream public-opinion debates, showing their consequences on attitudes toward Europe and EU institutions. Find here  more information on the EUDO Spotlight Project.

Participation in EU decision-making: Portugal in Comparative Perspective  

Although every European Union member state is equal in law, they are unequal in population and resources and more than two-thirds are small countries. Since the co-decision processes of the EU usually operate by consensus, the ability of countries to make their voice heard is as important as their votes. But to influence policies, small countries need to be informed, timely and realistic in what they say.

Thanks to support from the Fundaçao Francisco Manuel dos Santos, Lisbon, EUDO will systematically examine the role of representatives of small countries in the European Union policy process, with special reference to Portugal.

A series of reports will be published on how size matters. They will cover the following topics:

 

1. How Size Matters: Portugal in the European Union

• Number of MEPs in relation to population

• Changing weight of Portuguese MEPs with enlargement

• Changes in Qualified Majority voting in the Council

• Comparison with federal systems

• The need for smart power

 

 

2. European Parliament

• Number of party groups to which a country's MEPs belong

• Policy preferences of parties on multiple dimensions

• Participation in 20 committees

• Party discipline or national cohesion in EP votes

 

 

3. Legislating through Vertical and Horizontal Deliberations

• Links between COREPER staff in Brussels and national ministries

• Post-Lisbon role of national Parliament in scrutinizing EU proposals

• Discussion of Commission proposals in COREPER working parties

• Deliberations within the Council

• Co-decision with the European Parliament

 

 

4. Civil Society Representation

• How members are appointed in the European Economic and Social   Committee (EESC) and Committee of the Regions (CoR)

• Activities of experience of Portuguese members in the EESC and CoR

• Beyond EESC and CoR: Portuguese Civil Society Representatives’ activities in Brussels

• Civil Society consultation procedures: the role of Portuguese Civil Society Organisations

 

 

5. Commission personnel

• Number of Portuguese applicants for competitive posts, success rates and comparison with other small countries

• Senior posts held by Portuguese before and after 2004

 

 

6. Small Countries in a Big Europe: Portugal in Comparative Perspective

• A report drawing together themes from the discussion of the above reports plus a booklet for broader dissemination highlighting major points.

 

 

The project leaders are Professor Richard Rose  and Professor Alexander Trechsel  from the Robert Schuman Centre at the European University Institute, Florence, and the dos Santos Foundation has appointed a distinguished advisory committee from the Portuguese public policy community.

 

The start date of the project is 1 May 2011 and the concluding date 30 October 2013.

For more information on this project, please contact Gabriela Borz: g.borz@abdn.ac.uk