Policy Influence and Reelection in the European Parliament

Introduction: In this paper, we undertake two challenges: measuring political influence and using influence to explain reelection. First, we develop a new measure of policy leadership in the European Parliament (EP), by which we mean leadership by lawmakers in particular policy domains. Second, we investigate the predictive power of this new indicator by considering its ability to explain individual MEPs’ reelection. In other words, we ask if policy leaders are more likely to be reelected, controlling for relevant confounding factors, such as formal party and legislative leadership, seniority, and the electoral performance of MEPs’ national parties

Learning on the job?: EU enlargement and the assignment of (shadow) rapporteurships in the European Parliament

This article investigates the determinants of assignments to European Parliament negotiating teams comprising both rapporteurs and shadow rapporteurs. We re-examine the argument that under-representation of MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) from new Member States on these key posts after enlargement might have been due to a 'learning phase'. We find that MEPs from newer Member States remain considerably less likely to act as rapporteurs during the second term after enlargement (2009–14). Most importantly, this trend also holds for shadow rapporteurships under the co-decision procedure, which is when they matter most. This structural under-representation entails important implications for European integration, most importantly that MEPs from newer Member States are less able to influence legislation. We suggest that the patterns we find could be the result of reduced willingness, a more limited skill set, or a structural disadvantage of MEPs from the accession states in the report allocation process

Quo Vadis, Homo Digitalis? Razmišljanje o dobrobitima u obrazovanju i pandemiji bolesti COVID-19 u Belgiji, Hrvatskoj, Poljskoj i Rumunjskoj

The last few decades brought about unprecedented rapid technological change. The COVID-19 pandemic sped it up and forced digitalized citizenship, digitalized teaching and learning, and permanent engagement through the virtual bond. Many processes were moved to the virtual world and those illiterate in digital tools might have felt excluded or left behind. Technological advancements have had many benefits revealed but they have also had multiple negative effects on the educational process and the well-being of participants of the latter. As our study shows, human social nature opposes the use of the Internet as the main or only medium of human interaction. Our study shows that sole online education is not desirable and is not good for our well-being. In the article, we present empirical research findings from 4 EU countries representing different parts of Europe. A group of researchers from 4 universities joined forces to map the needs of teachers and learners and to identify key factors for well-being in education in post-pandemic educational settings. Qualitative data came from over 2000 participants (teachers and learners), as a part of a larger case study. In this article, we focus primarily on the data from an online survey in 2022, supplemented by a prior Pilot study in 2021.Posljednjih nekoliko desetljeća došlo je do neviđeno brzih tehnoloških promjena. Pandemija bolesti COVID-19 ubrzala ih je te prisilno digitalizirala građane, digitalizirala poučavanje i učenje te nametnula stalni angažman putem virtualne veze. Mnogi su procesi premješteni u virtualni svijet, a oni nepismeni u digitalnim alatima osjećali su se isključenima ili zapostavljenima. Tehnološki napredak otkrio je mnoge prednosti, ali je također imao i višestruko negativne učinke na obrazovni proces i dobrobit njegovih sudionika. Kao što pokazuje naša studija, ljudskadruštvena priroda protivi se korištenju interneta kao glavnoga ili jedinoga medija ljudske interakcije. Naša studija pokazuje da isključivo internetsko obrazovanje nije poželjno i nije dobro za našu dobrobit. U ovom članku predstavljamo rezultate empirijskih istraživanja iz 4 zemlje članice EU koje predstavljaju različite dijelove Europe. Skupina istraživača s 4 sveučilišta udružila je snage kako bi prikazala potrebe nastavnika i učenika te identificirala ključne čimbenike za dobrobit u obrazovanju u poslijepandemijskom obrazovnom okružju. Kvalitativni podatci prikupljeni su od više od 2000 sudionika (nastavnika i učenika) i dio su veće analize slučaja. U ovom se članku prvenstveno usredotočujemo na podatke iz internetske ankete iz 2022. godine, dopunjene prethodnom pokusnom studijom iz 2021. godine