David Earnshaw
At lunchtime today I went to the Centre, to a UACES seminar, to listen to my friend David Earnshaw giving a frank analysis of what the next European Parliament is likely to look and feel like. David’s analysis was not so much on overall composition, since despite lower overall turnout this is likely to remain roughly the same, but on topics such as the internal Group dynamics, the consequences of the recently-adopted rule changes and other reforms, on the trends within the codecision procedure, the arcane but important issue of ‘comitology’, the Committee structures and the consequences of any eventual implementation of the Lisbon Treaty. All good stuff. David’s most important argument is that, whatever the composition of the Parliament and however much legitimacy might be affected by lower turnout, the trend towards a further parliamentarisation of the EU is set to continue, and all democrats must applaud that.
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