The changing composition of the European parliament: MEPs from 1979 to 2014

Members of the European Parliament’s Political Careers across Different Levels: Presenting a New Dataset of Members of the European Parliament

“…Another distinctive feature of the EP is the extremely diversified backgrounds of its members, with MEPs coming as they do from 27 different member states, each having different connections with their electoral constituencies, diversified party systems and a consequently differentiated link with the national political arena from which they derive the legitimation to operate at the EU level. This results in a very fragmented, highly differentiated picture, which in turn has the potential to cause a high degree of instability (Beauvallet-Haddad et al, 2016). Despite this, in recent years, a growing stabilization of MEPs’ profiles has been noted, accompanied by a lengthening of the careers of MEPs (Salvati, 2016; Verzichelli and Edinger, 2005; Whitaker, 2014), as well as the apparent stabilization and formalization of parties’ recruitment rules (Kelbel, 2020) and paths to political promotion (Yoshinaka et al, 2010).…”

“…This approach calls into question the necessity to embrace a dynamic perspective in the study of political careers in the context of the intertwining of local, national and supranational dimensions (Beauvallet-Haddad et al, 2016; Borchert and Stolz, 2011) and on the growing interdependence among these levels. The careers unfolding across various levels can tell us something relevant about how different interests and demands move in a broader political space, which are the characteristics of those who are in charge of these representative claims, how the (potential) conflicts between those claims can be managed and why an institutional venue seems to be more suitable for specific interests compared to others and so on.…”

Ticket to Brussels. One-way or Return? Profiles and typology of Greek MEPs, 1981-2019

“…Greek MEPs sometimes score highly on belonging to the group of amateurs, that is, they are political personnel with no longstanding relationship with the EP (Salvati, 2016), while others appear relatively more experienced (Beauvallet & Michon, 2010). Information on Greek MEPs in various comparative works is also rather superficial; whenever these works cover an extensive period, their findings tend to describe differences and similarities between different countries rather than providing a systematic and in-depth analysis of these changes over time (Beauvallet-Haddad et al, 2016).…”

The changing paths of access to the European Parliament for French MEPs (1979–2014)

“…D'un côté, il permet d'essayer d'objectiver les positions, les trajectoires, les ressources et investissements des eurodéputés au sein du champ de l'Eurocratie (Georgakakis and Rowell, 2013), et ainsi de contribuer à une meilleure compréhension des contributions des députés et de leurs équipes au processus législatif et politique auxquels ils participent. En ce sens, notre analyse complète les études existantes sur les députés européens (Scarrow 1997;Norris and Franklin 1997;Verzichelli and Edinger 2005;Beauvallet 2007;Navarro 2009;Beauvallet and Michon 2010;Whitaker, 2014;Beauvallet et al, 2015;Daniel, 2015). D'un autre côté, l'analyse fait également sens par rapport au champ politique français de deux manières.…”

“…On les retrouve dans l'ensemble du champ politique français (e.g Achin, 2005 ;Lefebvre et Sawicki, 2006: Rouban, 2011Behr et Michon, 2013 ;Achin et Lévêque, 2014),. mais également, pour partie au sein des autres délégations du PE(Beauvallet et al 2015),…”