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Legislative speeches are an important part of parliamentary activity in the European Parliament. This paper presents new data on the allocation of speaking time in the EP, including a new survey of European party groups and a statistical analysis of speeches during the 5th European Parliament (1999-2004). Contrary to common assumptions in the EP literature, our findings suggest that party groups do not punish dissenters by limiting their speaking time on the floor despite their formal power to do so. Instead, party mavericks take the floor significantly more often than party faithfuls. We argue that there is an institutional explanation of parliamentary debates. Speaking time actually serves as a communication outlet for dissenting MEPs to put the reasons for their defection on the public record, in particular when there is a conflict between the national party and the European political group. The electoral disconnection between European party groups and the European electorate does not motivate the groups to prevent those dissenters from taking the floor. It does not matter whether dissenters denigrate the party label as this has little effect on the party's prospects as a whole. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

.This paper investigates the effects of referendums on news coverage of the European Constitutional Treaty (ECT) and on the emergence of a trans-national media discourse. In order to do so it draws on the content analysis of sixteen daily newspapers from France, Spain, Italy and Britain. Results show that referendums affected both the visibility of the ECT and the quality of coverage. They also suggest that by increasing the salience of EU issues, referendums can lead to the development of a trans-national public sphere. The 'domesticisation' of EU affairs and the 'polarisation' of political elites at referendum time are examined as possible explanations for these patterns. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is essentially a comparison of the relative levels of pro-environmental public policy across several European states. Unlike previous studies, however, this treatment extends far beyond the current boundaries of the European Union (EU) to incorporate several Eastern European and Post-Soviet societies. Key to this analysis is a measure of the relative strength or weakness of the Green Party within those nations? respective electoral and governmental systems. The overall objective of the study is to see if the presence of a strong Green Party has had a positive effect on increasing the level of environmental-friendliness, and if stronger parties?or stronger public support for such parties?lead to higher levels of environmental-friendliness; therefore producing greater enactment of pro-environmental public policies. However, other variables?including institutional measures, economic measures, and energy consumption measures?will also be considered, in order to gain a better understanding of the true causal effects underlying positive and negative environmental public policy outputs. Our hypothesis is that the greater the level of Green Party electoral support, and representation in government, the more ?environmentally-friendly? a nation will be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Union of European Football (Soccer) Associations is geographically, culturally, politically, and economically a much broader array of countries than the European Union. Russia, Israel, and Turkey, for example, are members of UEFA but not the EU. This raises two questions: First, why are so many more peoples and countries considered European in terms of soccer (UEFA) but not politics and economics (EU)? Second, what would the EU be like if its membership was the same as UEFA's? Using EUFA’s borders as a theoretical maximum definition of Europe may offer new insight into the pressing questions of EU expansion. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests five competing theories of support for integration previously examined within the EU-15 among the 10 new member states, with the goal of better understanding the kinds of policy demands likely to emanate from the region. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of the influx of new EU-level political actors from the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) on the internal structure and functioning of European Union (EU) institutions (particularly the European Parliament (EP)). The focus includes an examination of existing norms and organizational structures within the EP and a comparison to those existing within the CEEC legislatures. The research focuses in particular on several key aspects of internal legislative behavior and structure including: party discipline structures (whips, roll call voting etc), party and coalition voting cohesion, internal hierarchy structures, committee influence, the role of ideology and inter-institutional relationships. The goal of the research is to determine the similarities and differences between the political institutions of the accession countries and those already existing in the EU that may lead to conflict, change or dysfunction as large numbers of CEEC representatives join their ranks. This research incorporates key issues related to enlargement, including the institutional problems it may cause, especially within the EP as the home of party politics in the EU. In addition, however the research also addresses some aspects of the Europeanization literature as it suggests that the causal arrow may in fact flow from the national level to the European level and not only the other way around. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]