The European Parliament (EP) – a powerful actor in today's European Union – was not intended to be more than a consultative assembly at first. Yet this book shows that the EP was much more influential in shaping Community policy in the early years of the integration process than either the founding Treaties or most existing scholarship would allow.
Dr Mechthild Roos, Lecturer in Comparative Politics at the University of Augsburg, studies the EP’s institutional evolution through the lens of Community social policy, a policy area with a particularly strong ideational dimension. She argues that by promoting a European social dimension, Members of the EP (MEPs) presented the Parliament as the true representative of European citizens by channelling their interests and needs. MEPs thus emphasised the EP’s role as a provider of democratic legitimacy for Community politics, whilst at the same time trying to convince European citizens that the Communities could have a real and positive impact on their everyday lives.
Join the Alcide De Gasperi Centre for Dr Roos' presentation of her volume, with a discussion led by University of Padova Professor Lorenzo Mechi.
‘Cover to Cover’ is organised by the Alcide De Gasperi Research Centre, co-directed by Professor Emmanuel Mourlon-Druol (Department of History) and Dieter Schlenker (Director of the Historical Archives of the European Union), and under the scientific coordination of Dr. Pierre Alayrac.