Competitive and Coherent? Profiling the Europarties in the 2009 European Parliament Elections

On the bases of the new EU Profiler data for the 2009 European Parliament elections, this work looks at two basic criteria to assess the representative potential of the EU party system: its competitiveness and the policy coherence of its parties. It is here argued that, if the national parties are successfully able to aggregate their programmes and agendas at the EU level, proposing different options to the European voters, the EU 'democratic deficit' might not be as severe as it is often lamented. It is found that the Europarties, despite the enlargements towards Central and Eastern Europe, are sufficiently coherent and different to seek to fulfil an expressive, or representative, function. By selectively placing its focus on the 'supply-side' of politics, this work shows that European voters could indeed make meaningful choices, which the Europarties might turn into concrete policies through their parliamentary activity.