National pieces of the European puzzle

This book unfolds a neofunctionalist gender mainstreamed analysis over the Europeanisation of the electoral practices for the European elections, given that national political inputs in this matter contribute to the democratic deficit of the European Parliament because they determine asymmetries that lead to disadvantaging some of the competitors of the electoral competition and that distort the results of the electoral process in terms of ideological representation.

This is particularly important given that the European Parliament's legitimacy is based on the direct investment on behalf of the European citizens; considering the increasingly high role for the EP in the European institutional system and decision making process; taking into account the effects that the 28 different sets of rules concerning organizing the European candidates nomination process, electoral campaign and scrutiny produce for party and independent candidates in terms of fair access to the electoral competition; in accordance with the importance of the unfolding of the electoral process regarding the assurance of an adequate ideological representation in the framework of public policy making.

The Europeanisation of the European elections has made progresses through some reforms over the years, but it must continue at a much higher speed in order to keep up with the changes the EU itself is dealing with, particularly in terms of democratisation and internal (re)configuration of inter-institutional relations.