Join Moritz Neubert and Eugenio Cusumano for their presentations at the next EGPP seminar series co-organised with the EU Studies Working Group
Interinstitutional dynamics in the European Union: How intersecting roles of decision-makers shape the Spitzenkandidaten process | Moritz Neubert
Interinstitutional dynamics are at the heart of EU politics. The Spitzenkandidaten process is one example of such power struggles. After being successfully put into practice in 2014, it failed in 2019. Why was this the case? In this paper, I develop an argument focusing on individual decision-makers. Due to the sequential nature of the appointment process, the institution that achieves a common position and moves first can force the other’s hand. However, finding a common position is hampered as the individual actors within the European Parliament and the European Council are concurrently holding institutional, political, and national roles. Institutions can achieve a common position through sequencing whereby political and national roles are muted through respective concessions and distancing. Afterwards, individual actors can (re)engage in bargaining along political and national lines. The article demonstrates this argument by tracing the developments after the European elections in 2014 and 2019.
European Integration and Political Party Logos: a Visual Europeanization ? | Eugenio Cusumano
European integration scholars paid scant attention to the visual dimension of Europeanization. We fill this gap by analyzing how EU integration reshaped political parties’ most visible symbols: their logos. Specifically, we examine the logos used by 579 parties operating in Central, Eastern, and Southern European countries before and after these countries became EU members, obtained candidate status, or joined the European Neighbourhood Policy. By employing a difference-in-differences method, we show that deeper levels of EU integration correspond to a stronger decrease in parties’ use of extremist and nationalist symbols as well as national flag colors. This visual Europeanization process, prompted by both population ecology and rebranding, cannot be solely explained by democratization or economic growth. As highlighted by our qualitative study of three rebranding cases, logo transformation was driven primarily by domestic politics and electoral strategies, but also mediated by considerations of normative fit between European values and national symbols.
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