THE ROLE OF POLITICAL PARTIES AT EUROPEAN LEVEL ON THE DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES The role of political parties at European Level on the democratic deficit of the European Union in the aftermath of the 2019 European Parliament elections. Word count: 38421 Hanne Bauters Student number: 01504141 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Erwan Lannon Co-supervisor: Jolien Timmermans A dissertation submitted to Ghent University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Law Academic year: 2019 – 2020 2 Acknowledgments It took me a lot of time, energy and a lot of cups of coffee to finally be at this point, writing the acknowledgments. This master thesis is made as a completion of my master education at Ghent University. I am about to finish five interesting years. Several persons have contributed academically, practically and with support to this master thesis. First, I wish to thank my promoter, Prof. Dr. Erwan Lannon, for the opportunity to work on this interesting and challenging study about the role of political parties at European level on the democratic deficit of the European Union. I am grateful that Prof. Dr. Erwan Lannon made time to meet up with me, it was an honour to work under his guidance. Besides, I also have to be grateful that I could write my master thesis in English. It has been a struggle, but it really improved my English skills. Secondly, I wish to thank my co-supervisor, Jolien Timmermans for her justified remarks on the preliminary version of my master thesis, especially regarding the democratic deficit. Furthermore, I wish to thank my parents and my sister for their immense and unquestionable support throughout the entire process of writing this master thesis. 3 List of Abbreviations AFCO Committee on Constitutional Affairs ALDE Alliance for Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party EC European Community ECC European Economic Community ECR European Conservatives and Reformists Party ECSC European Community for Steal and Coal EFA European Free Alliance EFGP European Federation of Green Parties EGP European Green Party ELDR European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party EPP European People’s Party EU European Union MEP Member of the European Parliament PES Party of European Socialists TEU Treaty on European Union 4 Table of Contest Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................................................... 3 List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................. 4 Table of Contest ........................................................................................................................................ 5 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 8 Chapter I: Political Parties at European Level .......................................................................................... 10 1. The History of Political Parties at European Level..................................................................... 10 1.1 The Evolution of Party Politics at European Level Since 1951. ............................................ 10 1.2. The Long Path Towards Direct Elections of the European Parliament. ................................ 12 1.3. The Evolution of the Political Parties at European level Since the Maastricht Treaty ........... 16 2. The Internal Organisation and Financing of Political Parties at European Level ......................... 23 2.1. The Internal Organisation of Political Parties at European Level ......................................... 24 2.2. The Financing of Political Parties at European Level .......................................................... 24 2.3. The European Political Foundations ................................................................................... 26 3. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 28 Chapter II: The Democratic Deficit of the European Union ...................................................................... 29 1. The institutional deficit ............................................................................................................. 30 2. The Social Deficit ..................................................................................................................... 33 3. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 34 Chapter III: What can be done by the Political Parties at European Level? ............................................... 35 1. The Spitzenkandidat Procedure ................................................................................................. 39 1.1. The evolution of the appointment mechanisms for the Presidency of the European Commission and an overview of the former Presidents of the European Commission. ................................... 41 1.2. The Nomination of the President of the Commission since the Lisbon Treaty ..................... 44 1.3. The Spitzenkandidat Procedure in the 2019 European Parliament Elections ........................ 47 1.4. The Candidates Selection by the European Political Parties at European level for the 2019 European Parliament Elections .................................................................................................. 49 1.5. The Appearances of the Spitzenkandidaten in the 2019 Electoral Campaign. ...................... 59 1.6. The Election of Ursula von der Leyen and the Fall of the Spitzenkandidat Procedure .......... 65 1.7. Conclusion and Discussion ............................................................................................ 68 2. Transnational lists ..................................................................................................................... 69 2.1 What are Transnational Lists? ............................................................................................. 69 2.2. Debate on the transnational lists 2018 ................................................................................. 72 2.3. Can transnational lists possibly be an answer to the democratic deficit of the European Union? 74 2.4. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 77 Chapter IV: Further recommendations ..................................................................................................... 78 1. Recommendations Regarding the Spitzenkandidat Procedure ........................................................ 79 5 1.1. The Nomination of the Leading Candidates ........................................................................ 79 1.2. Increased Visibility of the Leading Candidate ................................................................ 81 2. Developing Individual Membership .......................................................................................... 81 2.1 Political Parties at European Level and Individual Membership ........................................... 82 2.2. Individual membership as the link between European institutions and European Citizens.... 84 2.3. Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 86 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 86 Bibliography............................................................................................................................................ 88 6 Figure 1 Source: The Economist Newspaper 7 Introduction Today’ s nature of European Union displays a fascinating, but at the same time highly demanding research object. While the European’s integration proceeds constantly and more rights are transferred to the supranational level, the European Union is criticized for lagging as regards to the development and expansion of democratic values and principles. The multifaced democratic flaws of the European Union are a highly discussed topic among many scholars and add up to the larger debate on the democratic deficit of the European Union. One possible answer to the democratic deficit lies in the role of political parties at European level. Since classical antiquity, political participation is universally acknowledged as the core element of democracy. Modern democracy, SCHATTSCHNEIDER asserted, is unthinkable in terms of political parties. 1 Political parties are widely seen to be a sine qua non for the organization of modern democracy. Given the importance attributed to political parties in a modern democracy, one would easily think political parties at European level are vibrant, coherent and of interest. But, in reality, the opposite occurs. Political parties at European level are perceived to be incapable of performing those functions which are of vital interest to the healthy functioning of a democracy. Political parties at European level should connect the policy preferences of the electors to the European institutions. Still, this linkage seemed to be lost at the level of the European Union. However, in 2014, with the introduction of the Spitzenkandidat procedure, political parties at European level demonstrated their potential. They