It is widely stated that the European Parliament (EP) is mainly characterised by “normal” legislative politics: party groups regularly establish common positions and operate as unified blocs in legislative negotiations. Other studies, however, contend that the EP still features too little party politics. Instead, standing committees and sectoral policy specialists dominate the negotiation process. We begin with the observation that the EP has both strong party groups and an elaborate system of sectoral committee specialisation. We suggest that in this context legislative negotiations may follow either a party or a sectoral logic. Conditional on a minimum level of controversy, attention by the main actors of mass politics, namely voters and national parties, triggers party politics. We shed light on the conditions and mechanisms leading to party and sectoral politics in EP negotiations using a comparative study of three legislative processes.
