The Covid-19 pandemic led to more than 7 million deaths, global economic depressions and political disputes about vaccine distribution. Although many political actors emphasised the importance of...Show moreThe Covid-19 pandemic led to more than 7 million deaths, global economic depressions and political disputes about vaccine distribution. Although many political actors emphasised the importance of vaccine equity in the beginning of the pandemic, global vaccine distribution mechanisms like COVAX were quickly abandoned. The high vaccine inequity led to a prolonged pandemic that negatively affected both Global North and South. While many former studies focused on establishing the reasons for a lack of vaccine equity, it is relevant to analyse to what extent political actors have critically reflected upon these reasons and acquired new understandings of how to improve vaccine equity during future pandemics. This research filled the gap by applying the policy learning framework by Heikkila & Gerlak (2013) and conducting a qualitative content analysis of EU Parliamentary Debates. The findings suggest a learning process of the European Parliament which entails: a strengthened belief that more vaccine equity is necessary when handling future global health crises as well as an in-depth understanding of potential policies that could advance equity during global health crises. These cognitive learning products are likely to shape future policy making of the EU regarding global vaccine equity.Show less
This thesis traces the influence of various party groups' ideas in the European Parliament's approach to obtaining direct elections during the period 1965-1979. Central to the analysis are MEPs'...Show moreThis thesis traces the influence of various party groups' ideas in the European Parliament's approach to obtaining direct elections during the period 1965-1979. Central to the analysis are MEPs' viewpoints on whether an increase of the Parliament's powers was desirable before direct elections (maximalist) or direct elections should precede an expansion of its powers (minimalist). Using records of the EP's various committees and the plenary, it argues that the alignment of a majority within the socialist and Christian-democrat groups, strengthened by matching ideas among liberal MEPs, on the desire to correct the Community's (perceived to be) undemocratic institutional balance by improving the Parliament's powers, created a maximalist majority that, until 1975, steered the EP's approach to direct elections towards prioritizing the expansion of power over an increase in democratic legitimacy. Subsequently, these groups' ideas about the expected balance between powers and representativity shifted the Parliament to a more minimalist approach of focusing on obtaining direct elections following the improvement of the Parliament's powers in 1975 through the budgetary treaties.Show less
The European Union has been recognised as a unique international organisation in its securitisation of climate change. The organisation has successfully securitised climate change since 2008,...Show moreThe European Union has been recognised as a unique international organisation in its securitisation of climate change. The organisation has successfully securitised climate change since 2008, prioritising it on the policy agenda. This securitisation has been established through speech acts defining climate change as a threat. This thesis examines the security narratives invoked in European Parliamentary debates from 2005 to 2011, focusing on the different security framings of climate change as a threat, and how these have changed over time. It argues that before the securitisation of climate change, the European Parliament framed climate change predominantly through ‘low politics’ security narratives like cooperative, environmental, and human security framings. Remarkably, this did not change after the securitisation of climate change, while it was expected that ‘high politics’ security narratives like global and national security would be more dominant. Ultimately, this thesis shows that when addressing climate change, the European Parliament frames the issue as a threat primarily through ‘low politics’ narratives, both in the three years before and the three years after the successful securitisation of climate change.Show less
The European Parliament’s vote on the European Climate Law was a controversial and pivotal battle ground for the climate politics, with the Greens and The Left joining the far-right Identity &...Show moreThe European Parliament’s vote on the European Climate Law was a controversial and pivotal battle ground for the climate politics, with the Greens and The Left joining the far-right Identity & Democracy Group in a vote against the law, while the Socialists and European People’s Party voted in favor. Expert analyses judge the Climate Law as insufficiently ambitious in light of the European Union’s targets set out in the Paris Agreement. This thesis, using Habermas’ theory on deliberative democracy as a framework, focuses on the European Parliament’s plenary debates on the European Climate Law to investigate whether democratic deliberation has a connection with climate policymaking. By conducting a discourse analysis of plenary debates using the Discourse Quality Index, this thesis explores the connection between deliberation and climate policy. The debates on the European Climate Law are analyzed, including a total of 141 speeches. As political groups have a high level of internal cohesion, the results are broken down according to political groups and their respective votes on the EU’s Climate Law. The results show that the political groups which voted against the climate law - due to its lack of ambition – had the highest quality of deliberation in the debates. The group which voted against the law - due to it being too ambitious – had the lowest quality of deliberation. These results suggest that a higher quality of deliberation is associated with more ambitious climate policy. The findings of this thesis thereby support the idea that strengthening deliberative democracy has the potential of making climate policymaking more aligned with the ambition of the Paris Agreement.Show less
This thesis seeks to investigate COVID-19 as an opportunity for change for neoliberal ideology in the European Union. Critical juncture theory frames the pandemic to determine whether and how it...Show moreThis thesis seeks to investigate COVID-19 as an opportunity for change for neoliberal ideology in the European Union. Critical juncture theory frames the pandemic to determine whether and how it amounts to a critical juncture for neoliberal political rationality investigated through discourse. A theoretical spill-over effect is laid out to assess whether COVID-19 unleashed the potential for change of a critical juncture on neoliberal discourse. Discourse analysis of EU social policy debates and documents before and after March 2020 is carried out to compare the two emerging discourses and observe whether a state of discursive flux can be identified. Discursive flux is developed through the indicators of “ambiguity” and “heightened level of contestation” to operationalise the potential for change of a critical juncture. The narrative comparison shows that flux can be identified in the post-March-2020 discourse. Indeed, whereas the dogmas found in the baseline reflect the conceptualisation of neoliberal political rationality, the post-March-2020 discourse is shown to question each of them, rejecting their dogmatic character. New narratives emerge which outline the possibility for change away from neoliberal political rationality. This is how this thesis concludes that COVID19 amounts to a critical juncture for neoliberal ideology in the EU.Show less
After a highly politicised debate wherein interest groups have been very active and decisive, the European Parliament voted in favour of a ban on pulse fishing on the 16th of January 2018. In the...Show moreAfter a highly politicised debate wherein interest groups have been very active and decisive, the European Parliament voted in favour of a ban on pulse fishing on the 16th of January 2018. In the discussion before the vote, the two opposing interest groups active in the pulse fishing case tried to influence the Members of the European Parliament by using scientific knowledge. The theoretical framework of this thesis exists of two theoretical perspectives. The academic literature on scientific knowledge utilisation distinguishes three different modes: the instrumental, the substantiating and the legitimising mode. Academic contributions on interest groups in the context of the European Union and more specifically the European Parliament distinguishes between business and citizen interest groups. Because the link between these two academic contributions has not yet been established, there is a literature gap. This study aims to explain the difference in the modes of scientific knowledge utilisation between the two different types of interest groups, as visible in the case of pulse fishing. To test the expectation that citizen interest groups make use of the substantiating mode and business interest groups make use of the legitimising mode, a qualitative document analysis is applied to the single case of pulse fishing. The main finding of this thesis is that the difference in the mode of scientific knowledge use by interest groups with regard to the decision-making process concerning the ban on pulse fishing by the European Parliament can be explained by the type of interest group. The results confirm thus the expectation and are therefore in line with the academic literature used, but also show that scientific knowledge can be used ambiguously. The findings of this thesis can be useful for both researchers and interest groups because it offers an insight into how scientific knowledge is used in policy making via interest groups, underscoring both its academic and societal relevance.Show less
Accredited Parliamentary Assistants are ‘eyes and ears’ of Members of the European Parliament, yet their influence on MEPs and role as a backstage support has not been widely discussed. The scope...Show moreAccredited Parliamentary Assistants are ‘eyes and ears’ of Members of the European Parliament, yet their influence on MEPs and role as a backstage support has not been widely discussed. The scope of APAs tasks and employment status prevent unequivocal categorisation. This paper draws from the literature on ‘policy professionals’ and three types of knowledge provision: problem formulation; process expertise; information access to shed more light on their work and environment which they operate. To answer the research question, six hypotheses were formulated and descriptive statistics and statistical analysis were applied. The anonymous, online survey was conducted among APAs and the set of data was collected (N = 116). The thesis concluded that APAs share similarities with policy professionals – yet they differ in their attitude towards academic education and on-the-job training.Show less
The current paper studies whether domestic political equality and membership of a discriminated group influence trust in the national parliament, and whether these effects spill-over to trust in...Show moreThe current paper studies whether domestic political equality and membership of a discriminated group influence trust in the national parliament, and whether these effects spill-over to trust in the European Parliament. To do so, existing data from the European Social Survey (n=38,691) is combined with domestic political equality scores created by Freedom House. The study provides new insights as previous research has focused on different geographies, specific marginalized groups, or only on either the national or European Parliament. Results seem to indicate that domestic political equality has a significant positive relation with trust in national parliament. Additionally, members of discriminated groups show significantly lower trust in the national parliament than those individuals who do not consider themselves to be part of a discriminated group. The results also indicate a positive relationship between trust in national parliament and trust in the European Parliament. Additionally, it is shown that most of the effects of domestic political equality and membership of a discriminated group on trust in the European Parliament are mediated by trust in national parliament. Nonetheless, there are significant residual direct effects in which both domestic political equality and membership of a discriminated group negatively impact trust in the European Parliament. While membership of a discriminated group exercises a negative direct effect on both trust in national parliament and European Parliament, domestic political equality shows a positive direct effect on trust in the national parliament but a negative direct effect on trust in the European Parliament. This seems to indicate that individuals living in politically unequal countries are more likely to trust the European Parliament unless they have high trust in the National parliament, and vice versa. There also seems to be an indication that the basis upon which individuals are discriminated against influences trust in both national parliament and the European Parliament. While those discriminated based on nationality, age, disability, language and 2 3 ‘other unspecified factors’ display decreased levels of trust in both national and European Parliament, those discriminated based on sexuality display increased levels of trust but only in the European Parliament. Individuals member of a group that is discriminated against based on race, ethnic group, or gender do not display different levels of trust in the national and European Parliament compared to those who are not discriminated against. In order to ensure trust in the national parliament it seems important to strive for the social inclusion of individuals who are part of a group that is currently discriminated against. National parliament might increase the level of trust of citizens towards the parliament by maximizing domestic political equality. Furthermore, the European Parliament should aim to increase trust in the national parliament as this will likely translate into increased levels of trust in the European Parliament as well.Show less
The 2014 Spitzenkandidaten procedure for nominating a candidate for the European Commission Presidency sought to render the (s)election process more democratically legitimate. However, despite its...Show moreThe 2014 Spitzenkandidaten procedure for nominating a candidate for the European Commission Presidency sought to render the (s)election process more democratically legitimate. However, despite its successful emergence, 2019 saw the repudiation of the Spitzenkandidaten. Adopting a multi-method approach that speaks to current literature on the EU’s perceived democratic deficit, this thesis highlights that from pluralist, libertarian, social democratic, and deliberative democracy perspectives the 2014 Spitzenkandidaten improved the democratic legitimacy of the Commission Presidency, reducing the EU’s democratic deficit. This thesis further finds that the repudiation of the Spitzenkandidaten in 2019 constituted a retraction of this democratic legitimacy from three of the four philosophical perspectives, expanding the democratic deficit accordingly. Utilising the insights of MEPs further enhances these findings, grounding them in theoretical and practical terms. As one of the initial studies that have analysed the impact of the Spitzenkandidaten following its repudiation in 2019, this research holds significant potential to inform our understanding of the current shape of contemporary European democracy and the EU’s democratic deficit.Show less
The objects of analysis in this thesis are the ideas and opinions from different European Parliament employees, from Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to language professionals ...Show moreThe objects of analysis in this thesis are the ideas and opinions from different European Parliament employees, from Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to language professionals (interpreters and translators), towards the use of English in this institution. More specifically, this study focuses on the attitudes towards the de facto and de jure role of English as an official and working language, and the future use of Euro-English within the Parliament. This study is primarily based on a literature review together with qualitatively analyzed interviews held with fourteen MEPs, MEPs’ assistants, and language professionals. The analysis of the attitudes held by the EP’s employees is deemed of academic value because it unravels the current underlying sociolinguistic dynamics and language ideologies acting in the EP’s functioning.Show less
The EU is one of the world’s largest markets and an important export destination for developing countries. Especially African countries depend on the European market and are greatly affected by its...Show moreThe EU is one of the world’s largest markets and an important export destination for developing countries. Especially African countries depend on the European market and are greatly affected by its trade policies. Trade relations between the EU and developing countries have existed since the inception of the EU. For a long period, the EU has focused on the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries alone, due to their colonial ties with the EU, disregarding other developing countries. However, since the mid-1990s, the ACP countries have faced the consequences of a shifting paradigm in the EU when it comes to trade policy and development. This research focuses on the recent trade relations between the EU and ACP countries. Once the EU wishes to conclude new international trade agreements, such as the controversial Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), the European Commission, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament have important roles, which influence the course of the negotiations. This research looks at the behaviour of the Commission and the European Parliament during the negotiations of the new EPAs between 2002 and 2013. The literature on the power identity of the EU in international relations is extensive, but speaks about the EU as if it were a homogenous institution. It therefore fails to distinguish the different power identities of the European Institutions. This research provides an original contribution to existing literature by distinguishing the particular identities of the Commission and the European Parliament in international trade relations. A critical discourse analysis shows that the European Parliament prioritised the concerns of the ACP countries during the negotiations and emphasised the need for development-oriented EPAs. The European Parliament challenged the arguments and negotiation tactics of the Commission, which shows that it did not agree with the course taken and intended to hold the Commission accountable. Moreover, it illustrates that the European Parliament took on the task to represent not just EU citizens, but ACP citizens as well. The Commission, on the other hand, prioritised the opening up of ACP markets, which it claimed would lead to development, and the swift conclusion of the negotiations. The Commission avoided discussing the concerns raised by the ACP countries, tried to convince others of the positive atmosphere during the negotiations, and repeatedly claimed to only have the best interests at heart for ACP countries.Show less
The mechanism for appointing the President of the European Commission has undergone a significant change in the post-Lisbon era. The introduction of the Spitzenkandidaten system, in the lead up to...Show moreThe mechanism for appointing the President of the European Commission has undergone a significant change in the post-Lisbon era. The introduction of the Spitzenkandidaten system, in the lead up to the 2014 European Parliamentary elections, marked a distinct shift in the inter-institutional power balance between the European Council and the European Parliament. As a consequence of the appointment of Jean-Claude Juncker as Commission President, the European Parliament had exerted considerable influence, despite not having a clear legal mandate. However, the shift in the inter-institutional balance of power was temporary. The Spitzenkandidaten system did not become codified in the Treaties and the future of the system became a subject of debate. A shift occurred in the 2014-2019 inter-election period, culminating in the non-implementation of the appointment mechanism in 2019. This thesis will trace historically the evolution of the Spitzenkandidaten system, recount the appointment procedure in 2014 and analyse the ensuing inter-institutional power struggle between the European Council and the European Parliament. To explain the non-implementation of the Spitzenkandidaten system in 2019, Müller Gomez, Wessels and Wolters (2019) theoretical approach to inter-institutional relations is implemented. In doing so, the thesis contributes to a wider debate about the institutional architecture of the EU and the balance of power between the institutions, i.e., the interplay between supranationalism and intergovernmentalism.Show less
Over the course of European integration, national parliaments have developed methods of scrutinizing new EU legislation. Especially since the Lisbon Treaty, national parliaments have become both...Show moreOver the course of European integration, national parliaments have developed methods of scrutinizing new EU legislation. Especially since the Lisbon Treaty, national parliaments have become both more empowered and active on EU affairs. At the same time, the European Parliament has become a co-legislator, (theoretically) securing parliamentary control over both the Council and the EP parts of the ordinary legislative procedure. This thesis, by way of a deep case study, gives an analysis of the methods to enact influence deployed by Dutch parliamentarians in the European Parliament and the Tweede Kamer on the Proposal for a European Labour Authority. (ELA, 2018/0064 (COD)). The thesis is based on parliamentary proceedings and interviews with M(E)Ps and others involved in the case. Among other conclusions, the importance of committee meetings is highlighted.Show less
This thesis offers a qualitative approach to understanding the interactions between the European Parliament (EP) and the European Central Bank (ECB). The European Parliament supervises the ECB...Show moreThis thesis offers a qualitative approach to understanding the interactions between the European Parliament (EP) and the European Central Bank (ECB). The European Parliament supervises the ECB through the Banking Dialogue and the Monetary Dialogue. By doing this, the EP actively seeks to demand accountability from the ECB. The extent to which the EP does this is examined in this work. An interactionist qualitative model is used to analyse 10 hearings (1,5-3 hours) between April 2018 and June 2019. It is found that althought the European Parliament is restrained in its possibilities to demand accountability, members of the EP make effective use of the tools they have: they engage in informed and targeted dialogue, and demand accountability through scrutiny and justification requests.Show less
