The first EU elections debate last night was striking in its geographical imbalance. All the candidates were northern European, except for one who kept on saying he is Moldovan (not in the EU).

6 of the 8 candidates could drive to each others' places without much trouble

Yesterday's #MaastrichtDebate involved a curious mix of candidates staging a debate for a partial public
Thus, the #Spitzenkandidaten process risks undermining rather than strengthening EU democracy
It is more than time to think of an alternative 👇

Too many university leaders have seen their task as bridging the gap between governing elites and universities. It worked for a time but the last 10 years have seen a campaign against universities as a threat - this has caught out leaders like Minouche Shafik.

How much power should we give #minipublics ? To what extent should we defer to decisions of an unelected, randomly selected group of ordinary citizens?

Our special issue on DEMOCRACY WITHOUT SHORTCUTS discusses Cristina Lafont's critique of minipublics 🔖

delibdemjournal.org/issue/65/info/

Less than two months before the start of the European Elections. Has the #EP2024 campaign started in your EU member state yet? If so, please post pic of campaign posters below. 🙏

On EUobserver 👇 I offer a brief analysis of the confusing state of play of the #Spitzenkandidaten -process + what a better alternative might look like

I believe this framing of Europe's problem as one of lack of competitiveness (by Mario Draghi) might be helpful as a political rallying cry, but it is problematic from an economic standpoint. geopolitique.eu/en/2024/04/16/…. +

What does instant messaging imply for democracy?
Read my new article on ‘WhatsApp Government’, online now Journal of Politics @[email protected]
journals.uchicago.edu/eprint/KSTQXFH…

Very happy to see that this workshop and the discussions we had result in so many interesting publications. Here is Jonathan White's WhatsApp Government, forthcoming in Journal of Politics: journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/72…

New Sieps Policy Paper by Simon Hix and
Abdul Ghafar Noury on the potential outcome and consequences of #EP2024 .
They take a deep dive into the roll-call vote data of the current term and the latest opinion polls for the elections on 6-9 June👇

.Pieter Omtzigt’s Nieuw Sociaal Contract stelt voor om een regionale component toe te voegen aan het kiesstelsel voor de Europese verkiezingen. Hoe werkt dat uit? 🧵1/6 stukroodvlees.nl/omtzigts-opmer…

As Martin Sandbu writes, “How leaders judge the experience with the recovery fund is going to loom over a lot of big political decisions to be made in the EU in the next few years”

Indeed, it should be the key issue for the upcoming #EUelections2024

This👇 has become a really nice and topical volume.

I contributed a chapter that evaluates different ways to assign EU executive power (like rotation, appointment and election) in light of different ideas of the EU polity

🙏 Dionyssis G. Dimitrakopoulos Matilde Ceron Thomas Christiansen 🇪🇺🇺🇦 for organizing

Fascinating that in all countries >50% have an opinion.
I doubt any other European politician would come close to that

Great to see this finally come out. Many thanks to all brilliant contributors, and my fellow editors Matilde Ceron Thomas Christiansen 🇪🇺🇺🇦

#politicisation #Spitzenkandidaten

European Parliament European Commission Jean Monnet Chair at Birkbeck Erasmus+ Birkbeck School of Social Sciences Luiss Guido Carli

tinyurl.com/4be46hmz

.Simon Otjes on what should be the key issue in EU elections:
NGEU hasn't become the “new normal” in Europe but part of competition between Left -who see it as part of an EU economic policy- and Right -who focus on competitiveness and lower regulation
intereconomics.eu/contents/year/…