Puppets, heavy lifting, and stereotypes: National Party Delegations in the European Parliament

Political parties are considered essential for democratic governance: they form governments, compete in elections, express their views in parliaments and help to integrate the whole political system. Yet, the political groups of the European Parliament deviate from this traditional political party characterization, not least because they do not form a European Union (EU) government and they consist of national party delegations (NPDs) elected in the member states and not transnationally across the EU. We contend that NPDs can play a fundamental role in the European Parliament in either advancing or blocking gender equality. How NPDs engage in EP and political group policy-making and whether there are differences depending on size, region, or other aspects are open questions (see for an exception Kreppel 2002). Nevertheless, how political groups balance powers between different NPDs, formally and informally, and how they perceive each other remain largely unanswered questions. In this paper we engage particularly with the latter set of questions. Drawing on an extensive interview material of 139 interviews with MEPs and staff conducted in Brussels, Strasbourg, and online, we ask how MEPs and staff construct the role and importance of different NPDs and what they base their construction on. Moreover, across these questions, we interrogate the potential effects for gender equality as an important indicator for democratic governance and ask if the constructions are gendered.