Czech Republic and Belgiums Participation and Representation in the European Parliament - Research Paper Example

CZECH REPUBLIC AND BELGIUM’S PARTICIPATION AND REPRESENTATION IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT By College Department 7 December 2014 The European Parliament represents the grouping of people brought together under the European Community. It began as a simple assembly of national parliaments that were appointed to the European Parliament. The direct election began in 1979 and since then, it has become the only directly elected organ in the European Union. This parliament has progressively been transformed from being a purely consultative body into a legislative one. Currently, it passes most of the European laws and its powers may soon be further stretched, if the Lisbon treaty goes into force. My countries of choice are Czech Republic and Belgium. The choice for comparison of the two European member states is because of their variance in entry period. Belgium is one of the founding nations having been present during the formation in 1952, while Czech came much later in 2004. Czech Republic is a young nation formed in 1993 after the split of Czechoslovakia. Belgium became independent in 1830. The time of independence is quite different for the two nations and could have also influenced the social-political and economical development for each nation. The political structure for the two nations also varies. Belgium is a federal state and its political system is based on parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy as the head of state. The government is further divided into the regional government and community government. The kings hold the executive powers, while the prime minister is the head of government and cabinet. The prime minister is appointed by the monarch. The federal parliament has two chambers: the House of Representatives and the senate (The Belgian House of Representatives and Senate, 2004). Czech Republic on the other hand is a parliamentary democracy with separate legislative, executive and judicial powers. The parliament consists of the chamber of deputies and the senate. Unlike Belgium, the government is a presidential system whereby the president is elected on a five year term. It also has a prime minister appointed by the president (Prokop, 2010). The European parliament comprises of 24 representatives who are elected from Belgium. Proportional representation is applied in the electoral system. In this election (European parliament), Belgium comprises of three electoral districts. The system used is referred to as d’Hondt formula and there is no limitation for the representation. After the election, people are still given the chance to overrule the party ruling candidates (European Election Database, n.d.). In Czech Republic, the electoral system is based on proportional system, whereby the elector votes for the party list as indicated in his choices. He also has the opportunity of choosing four further preferred candidates for the posts. D’Hondt electoral system was named after a Belgian lawyer. It’s a way of allocating congress seats among the states. The seats are allocated using divisors method. The party’s vote is divided using these divisors. The parties with the highest averages are allocated the seat. This system is alleged to favour large parties at the expense of smaller parties (Amy, 2000). Proportional representation electoral system is a system whereby the distribution of seats is proportional to the total votes cast for each party. This system has been adopted by most of the democratically advanced nations. Therefore, representation electoral system is much fair than D’Hondt system. Turnout level for Belgium at the 2014 EP election was rated at 90% with a total of 21 seats, while Czech Republic had a very low turnout rated at 19.5% and total seats of 21 (Wall Street Journal, n.d.). Since 1979, Belgium has averaged a turnout of 90%, while Czech Republic dropped from an average of 28% to 19% from the previous years (Wall Street Journal, n.d.). In recently concluded national elections in Belgium, the turnout was rated at 89.4%; this record has been consistent for a long time (Wall Street Journal, n.d.). Election in Czech Republic took place in 2013 with a voter turnout of 59%, which is quite high compared to the turnout in European Parliament. Belgium proves their loyalty to European Union and positive foreign policy towards the west, while the data observed in Czech displays some scepticism that their foreign policy towards the EU is doubtful. Czech media has been heard terming EU as foolish and useless (Hornat, 2014). The performance of opposition in relation to the government in Belgium election was very competitive. The leading party had 20.3%, with the second party coming close with 11.7% (FocusEconomics, 2014). The rest distributed among the many other parties. In Czech Republic, the leading party won elections with 20.5% and 50 seats, while the closest opposition had 18.7% votes and 47 seats; here, the competition was so close each candidate leaving the next with a few votes (Election Resources on the Internet, n.d.). The two nations have shown very close competition. This shows that the two nations have embraced democracy and the governments have credible opposition to keep checks on the government excesses. In most countries in the European Union, the number of women is higher in national parliaments than in European parliament. Belgium registers such a range. There is a lower percentage of women in European Parliament than in than in the national assembly. There is similarity between Czech Republic and Belgium when it comes to women representation with each one of them having lower number of women in European Parliament. These two nations reflect the perception of women across all other members of the EU. This shows that it still remains a challenge. The researchers have also failed to establish the cause of low women representation. Belgium representatives in European parliament belong to Christian peoples party, Christian democratic and Flemish, Humanist democratic Centre and Christian Social Party. In Czech Republic, the members belong to Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslavak people’s Party and TOP 09. Belgian senate had the advisory committee on European affairs and was composed of 22 senators. Later on in 1995, a federal advisory committee was formed to continue advising on European affairs. This advisory committee was then referred to as the committee, constituting 30 members. Their appointments depend upon proposals from different political groups. The members of European parliament are appointed by 25 members of European parliament elected after European parliament elections and is based on proportional representation system. The committee is chaired by the chairman of the delegation of Belgian senate. Czech Republic has a permanent representation that serves as a link between the Czech administration and EU institutions. The permanent representation committee to the European Union prepares the councils of ministers. COREPER II is concerned with political and financial matters, while COREPER I deals with economic and social issues. Other Czech representation is through the security committee (Permanent Representation of the Czech Republic to the European Union, n.d.). Czech Republic has one European Parliament committee chairperson, who will hold office till 2017 and had also had one chairperson between 2007 and 2009. Belgium has never had chairmanship representation. The MEP participation rate for Belgium between 2009 and 2014 is given by 84.59, while Czech Republic had a representation of 84.42. The relationship between the EU politics and group members is enhanced by interests associated with the European Union. The associations made have high affinity to joining the political groups (Aspinwall and Greendwood, 2013). The European political group for Belgium is ALDE/ALDE and the voting national party is Open Vlaamse Leberalen en Democraten. The loyalty level is 99.3% (Vote Watch Europe, 2013). The European political group for Czech Republic is ECR and the national party is Obcanska demokraticka struna. The loyalty level lies at 95.1% (Vote Watch Europe, 2013). Election turn over in Belgium is 4%, while in Czech Republic, it is 9% (Vote Watch Europe, 2013). The importance of the group party dominates the EP’s daily operations. Most of the MEPs still put much weight on their national party system and thereby they are still influenced by the domestic commitments (Staab, 2008). During the period from 2004 to 2009, the existing permanent committees were 20, with varied importance. The increase in loyalty towards the European Parliament was due to the successful metamorphosis. It is suggested by Jordan and Adele that European Parliament has secured a reputation towards its commitment in environmental aspects (2012). The European Parliament is composed of many members who are spread across cross national political groups. No group controls a majority, therefore in order that each makes achievement, the groups have to cooperate with one another by reaching an inter group consensus. According to Jordan and Adelle, “the largest national delegation within the largest political group gains the most posts of importance” (2012, p.133). The small groups can still gain some parliamentary posts. Political group cohesion can be reduced by internal fractionalization. An increase in the size of political group increases the cohesion. This also has an impact in policy outcome and demands a bigger stake in votes (Hix, Noury and Roland, 2007). Cohesive party groups have the potential to increase representation in the EU by offering better policy positions with which voters can identify with. From the results of cohesion, policy definition and adherence prove to be more important since they drive around the cohesion of group parties. In the research, Belgium has better representation and loyalty rating than Czech Republic, although both of them have not fully utilized the fruits of the European Union. Their representation is still low. They need to be more aggressive in this arena so that their representation is increased. References Amy, D. J., 2000. Behind the Ballot Box: A Citizen’s Guide to Voting Systems. California: Greenwood Publishing Group. Aspinwall, M. and Greenwood, J., 2013. Collective Action in the European Union. London: Routledge. Election Resources on the Internet, n.d. October 25-26, 2013 Chamber of Deputies Election Results - Czech Republic Totals. [online] Available at: [Accessed 7 December 2014]. European Election Database, n.d. Belgium. [online]Available at: < http://www.nsd.uib.no/european_election_database/country/belgium/> [Accessed 7 December 2014]. FocusEconomics, 2014. Flemish Separatists win Belgian Federal Elections. [online] Available at: < http://www.focus-economics.com/news/belgium/politics/flemish-separatists-win-belgian-federal-elections> [Accessed 7 December 2014]. Hix, S., Noury, A.G. and Ronald, G., 2007. Democratic Politics in the European Parliament. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hornat, Jan, 2014. A Reflection on Czech Eurosceptism before the EU Elections. [online] Available at: [Accessed 7 December 2014]. Jordan, A. and Adelle, C., 2012. Environmental Policy in the EU. Oxon: Routledge. Permanent Representation of the Czech Republic to the European Union, n.d. About the Representation. [online] Available at: [Accessed 7 December 2014]. Prokop, Krzysztof, 2010. Evolution of Constitutionalism in the Selected States of Central and Eastern Europe. Bialystok: Temida 2. Staab, A., 2008. The European Union Explained. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. The Belgian House of Representatives and Senate, 2004. The Belgian Federal Parliament. [pdf] Available at: [Accessed 7 December 2014]. Vote Watch Europe, 2013. National Party Statistics. [online]. Available at: [Accessed 7 December 2014]. Wall Street Journal, n.d. European Parliament Elections 2014: Results. [online] Available at: [Accessed 7 December 2014]. Read More