Friday, July 10, 2015
S08 (13 rue de l'Université)
This time it’s different“ was the slogan launched by the European Commission to mobilize voters for the 2014 European election, reflecting the fact that the May 2014 election was the first one based on the Lisbon Treaty, which was enacted in 2009. This treaty endows the European Parliament with greater powers in many ways, including a new role in electing the Commission President. The European Parliament made extensive use of these rights via a
strategy of nominating Spitzenkandidaten for the electoral campaign. The paper analyses the 8th election to the European Parliament from a gender perspective. In so doing, it employs the dual concept of representation as “standing for”, i.e. descriptive representation, and “acting for”, i.e. substantive representation. Based on this model, the study analyzes the composition of the new European Parliament in the light of long-term trends. It considers the options for greater substantive representation of gender issues in the period 2014 to 2019, based on the empirical findings pertaining to women’s descriptive representation in the EP and the new European Commission.
strategy of nominating Spitzenkandidaten for the electoral campaign. The paper analyses the 8th election to the European Parliament from a gender perspective. In so doing, it employs the dual concept of representation as “standing for”, i.e. descriptive representation, and “acting for”, i.e. substantive representation. Based on this model, the study analyzes the composition of the new European Parliament in the light of long-term trends. It considers the options for greater substantive representation of gender issues in the period 2014 to 2019, based on the empirical findings pertaining to women’s descriptive representation in the EP and the new European Commission.
