The Appointment of Coordinators in the European Parliament

Coordinators in the European Parliament are the main mediators between specialized committees and European political groups. They have key responsibilities and duties in the decision-making process, through the assignment of rapporteurships and group's cohesion. Despite the relevance of this position (Neuhold 2001), research on coordinators has been comparatively limited so far. Most studies concentrate on MEPs voting behaviour (Hix et al. 2007; Coman 2009), the rationale behind committee assignments (Yordanova 2011; Whitaker 2005, 2011) or rapporteurship allocation (Yoshinaka et al. 2010; Kaeding 2004; Hausemer 2006  but, with the exception of Obholzer and Kaeding (2015), there hasn't been much work on coordinators. 

This paper aims at contributing filling it this gap. To do so, it draws on the insights from studies on rapporteurship allocation and seeks to examine which factors explain the nomination of coordinators by political groups in the EP. Relying on interviews, it will concentrate on the two largest groups in the EP (S&D and EPP) and analyze the process of coordinators' nomination for the 22 committees under the 8th legislature.