Uppsatsen har undersökt huruvida Europaparlamentet under sin historia gjort mer än explicit uttryckt i fördragen vid tillsättandet av Europeiska kommissionen. Sex sådana förfaranden har identifierats. En utförligare analys av dessa förfaranden har sedan visat att även om de inte explicit fått stöd, så kan stöd ändå härledas från fördragen i tre av sex fall. I de resterande tre fallen (som saknar fördragsstöd, inte ens härlett sådant) kan det dock inte bevisas med säkerhet att makt utövats. Slutsatsen blir därför att Europaparlamentet aldrig tillskansat sig makt på ett fördragsvidrigt sätt. Vidare har legitimiteten i Europaparlamentets maktutövning vid dessa förfaranden har också undersökts med hjälp av kriterier utarbetade av David Beetham. Denna legitimitetsanalys kom fram till att Europaparlamentets roll vid kommissionstillsättningarna gällande tre förfaranden var helt legitim, och vid tre förfaranden delvis legitimt.

This study aims to contribute to the debate on the influence of Europarties in the European Union decision-making process, and more precisely in the European Council. As a starting point the theory on Europarty influence in the European Council, by Jonas Tallberg and Karl Magnus Johansson, will be tested in order to assess its validity. There is a need to further research the role of the Europarties in the decision-making processes of the European Union, since the contributions to the field are scarce. The theory suggests that Europarties can be expected to be influential when 1) there is ideological polarisation surrounding the question of concern, 2) one party is dominating the European Council, and 3) when a Europarty is successful in mobilising and creating cohesion among its leaders. In addition, the Europarties have to be able to compete with domestic constraints that the members of the Council are bound by. The theory is empirically tested by a comparative case study on the outcomes of the Spitzenkandidaten-processes in the European elections in 2014 and 2019. It seems that the Europarties were influential and managed to get a Spitzenkandidat elected as Commission President in 2014, but less successful in 2019. However, the findings of the empirical study suggest that the Europarties were successful in mobilising support also in 2019, but a chain of events led to the fall of the Spitzenkandidaten-process in its current shape and the Europarties have most likely lost a part of their long-term influence.

The thesis deals with the concept of politicization of the European Commission. It stems from the assumption that the new election procedure of the President of the Commission which is connected to the nomination of so-called Spitzenkandidaten, i.e. the lead candidates of the political parties before the elections to the European Parliament, led to the strengthening of the Parliament and subsequent politicization of the Commission. The new President of the Commission thus comes from the strongest political party which ran the elections with his candidature. The thesis formulates four hypotheses while focusing on three main areas which might be influenced by politicization: public opinion awareness, strengthening of the political affiliation of the commissioners as well as of the whole College of commissioners, and change of its inner composition - the political experience should become more prominent when choosing the suitable candidates for the commissioners. The analysis shows that it is possible to trace a positive trend in public opinion awareness from the side of the European Commission. Furthermore, it indicates the political assignment of individual portfolios among commissioners. On the other hand, the strengthening of the political affiliation of the Commissions and the change of the inner...

Elections to the European Parliament are characterised by a steady decline in voter turnout. To tackle this problem, in 2014, several groups of the European Parliament nominated pan-European Spitzenkandidaten who were expected to personalise the elections and mobilise European voters. Based on this development, this study analyses the media cov-erage of the 2014 EP elections with special focus on the role of the Spitzenkandidaten. A quantitative content analysis of European election campaign coverage in the opinion leading newspapers of three influential EU member states, Ger-many, France, and the United Kingdom was carried out. The results show large candidate- and country-specific differ-ences regarding the visibility and thematic coverage of the EP elections in general as well as the presentation of the Spitzenkandidaten. The Spitzenkandidaten were not very visible in either the German, French, or British newspaper cov-erage. With respect to the presence and media personalisation of the Spitzenkandidaten, the newspaper coverage of the EP election does not demonstrate any mobilising effect and thus does not reflect the high expectations the European Parliament attributed to the nomination of the Spitzenkandidaten.

Elections to the European Parliament are characterised by a steady decline in voter turnout. To tackle this problem, in 2014, several groups of the European Parliament nominated pan-European Spitzenkandidaten who were expected to personalise the elections and mobilise European voters. Based on this development, this study analyses the media cov-erage of the 2014 EP elections with special focus on the role of the Spitzenkandidaten. A quantitative content analysis of European election campaign coverage in the opinion leading newspapers of three influential EU member states, Ger-many, France, and the United Kingdom was carried out. The results show large candidate- and country-specific differ-ences regarding the visibility and thematic coverage of the EP elections in general as well as the presentation of the Spitzenkandidaten. The Spitzenkandidaten were not very visible in either the German, French, or British newspaper cov-erage. With respect to the presence and media personalisation of the Spitzenkandidaten, the newspaper coverage of the EP election does not demonstrate any mobilising effect and thus does not reflect the high expectations the European Parliament attributed to the nomination of the Spitzenkandidaten.