Supranational Party System of European Union in Challenging Contexts

Details

The European Union is a political and economic union of 27 sovereign Member States, covering over 4 million km² and with 503 million inhabitants. To coordinate any joint initiative, it needed a structure. This structure has evolved over time and is constantly changing. The decisions are made through a mix of supranational institutions (i.e., institutions to whom Member States have delegated their powers) and intergovernmental negotiations (which concern areas in which Member States have not delegated their power, but make decisions together). The main European Institutions are: The European Council, the European Commission, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament.

As the European Union enters a crucial period of institutional reform with the upcoming enlargement to new member state applying, how to increase the democratic performance of the Union’s political system has become one of the central issues. In all democratic political systems, one of the main ways a policy is legitimized is through a party system. A democracy that has a responsive party system has two essential elements: first, organization – internal hierarchical party organizations, and second, competition – contestation, rather than collusion, between these organizations over public policies and political office.

In recent decades the European Union has refined its democratic functioning by, for example, extending the decision-making powers and control of the European Parliament and facilitating the creation of European political parties. Given the multiple challenges to democracy worldwide, the EU must strengthen its legitimacy and accountability, and connect with citizens. European political parties have come a long way but only recently established themselves at the heart of European democracy, a process that has paralleled the increasing attention paid to enhancing democracy and transparency in EU decision-making. European political parties play an important role, but face challenges in bringing messages to EU citizens and making them more aware of EU politics. In addition, the European institutional and electoral frameworks do not provide the same structure and tools for European political parties as their national counterparts do, which enable national parties to attract the attention and interest of citizens or to be featured in the media.

Konrad Adenauer Stiftung in cooperation with Institute of Democratization Studies provides a discussion on “Supranational Party System of the European Union in Challenging Contexts” for Thai citizens and ASEAN in general as a proposal for how to promote a framework for mutual developments and civic engagement.

 

Objectives

1. To exchange knowledge and experience about the development of European political parties

    in European parliament, its essential elements and different forms from various perspectives.

2. To create awareness about new challenges among policymakers, academics and public about

    the globalization and supranational organization on political party design.

3. To collect information/problems/obstacles of the linkage between supranational organization  

    and democratization at national and sub-national levels for future improvement.

Expected outcome

At the end of the session, the participants shall benefit in gaining knowledge, being able to explain and making analysis about the important role of the European Union’s supranational party system and party platform design in political pluralism, its essential and its characteristic, from the various perspective.

 

Venue

Date  :  Tuesday, September 13th, 2022, Time:  14.00 hrs. – 16.30hrs (Bangkok, Thailand’s Time)/ 9.00 hrs. – 11.30 hrs. (Berlin, Germany’s Time)

Place :  Online meeting via Zoom meeting application

 

Participants

Approximately 50 participants: policymakers, academics, political scientist, public, and press.

 

Link for registration here.

 

Zoom Meeting link: Here.

Meeting ID: 881 0595 7546
Passcode: 1234