IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ecopol/v37y2025i2p724-734.html

Regional Representation in the European Parliament: Parliamentary Questions on Geographical Indications

Author

Listed:
  • Martijn Huysmans
  • Niels Gheyle

Abstract

The European Parliament represents the citizens of the European Union. However, individual Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) also face incentives to represent more narrow regional economic interests. Geographical Indications (GIs) such as Asiago or Champagne are an ideal policy area to study regional representation. Their defined regions provide clear incentives and a reliable measurement of regional representation. This article codes and analyses the written questions on GIs posed by MEPs during the period 2009–2019. Descriptively, we find that MEPs often mention products from their region. We also find that MEPs focus their questions on contentious products and on politicized free trade agreements. Contributing to the debate on representation in the European Parliament, we find evidence for more regional representation by MEPs from countries with regional lists for EP elections. We conclude with the implications of our research for representation in the European Union and the idea of transnational lists.

Suggested Citation

  • Martijn Huysmans & Niels Gheyle, 2025. "Regional Representation in the European Parliament: Parliamentary Questions on Geographical Indications," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 724-734, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecopol:v:37:y:2025:i:2:p:724-734
    DOI: 10.1111/ecpo.12337
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ecpo.12337
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ecpo.12337?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christian Staat & Colin R. Kuehnhanss, 2017. "Outside Earnings, Electoral Systems and Legislative Effort in the European Parliament," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(2), pages 368-386, March.
    2. Francis Cheneval & Frank Schimmelfennig, 2013. "The Case for Demoicracy in the European Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(2), pages 334-350, March.
    3. Sorace, Miriam, 2018. "The European Union democratic deficit: substantive representation in the European Parliament at the input stage," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 87625, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Høyland, Bjørn & Hobolt, Sara B. & Hix, Simon, 2019. "Career Ambitions and Legislative Participation: The Moderating Effect of Electoral Institutions," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(2), pages 491-512, April.
    5. Roger Scully & Simon Hix & David M. Farrell, 2012. "National or European Parliamentarians? Evidence from a New Survey of the Members of the European Parliament," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(4), pages 670-683, July.
    6. Anna A. Dekalchuk & Aleksandra Khokhlova & Dmitriy Skougarevskiy, 2016. "National or European Politicians? Gauging MEPs Polarity When Russia is Concerned," HSE Working papers WP BRP 35/PS/2016, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    7. Vivien A. Schmidt, 2013. "Democracy and Legitimacy in the European Union Revisited: Input, Output and ‘Throughput’," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 61(1), pages 2-22, March.
    8. Isabelle Guinaudeau & Olivier Costa, 2022. "Issue Politicization in the European Parliament. An Analysis of Parliamentary Questions for Oral Answer (2004–19)," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(3), pages 507-525, May.
    9. Adina Akbik & Marta Migliorati, 2023. "Between Ideology and Nationality: Drivers of Legislative Oversight in the European Parliament's Economic Dialogues," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(4), pages 1026-1046, July.
    10. Iain Osgood & Yilang Feng, 2018. "Intellectual property provisions and support for US trade agreements," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 421-455, September.
    11. Martijn Huysmans, 2022. "Exporting protection: EU trade agreements, geographical indications, and gastronationalism," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 979-1005, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Martijn Huysmans & Niels Gheyle, 2023. "Regional representation in the European Parliament: Parliamentary Questions on Geographical Indication," Working Papers 2309, Utrecht School of Economics.
    2. Scharpf, Fritz W., 2013. "Political legitimacy in a non-optimal currency area," MPIfG Discussion Paper 13/15, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    3. Vera van Hüllen, 2013. "Political Legitimacy in a Non-optimal Currency Area," KFG Working Papers p0052, Free University Berlin.
    4. Daniele Curzi & Martijn Huysmans & Oliver Ken Haase, 2024. "Potable intellectual property: WTO TRIPS and EU geographical indication wines," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 46(3), pages 1065-1082, September.
    5. Richard Hyman & Rebecca Gumbrell-McCormick, 2020. "(How) can international trade union organisations be democratic?," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 26(3), pages 253-272, August.
    6. Christoph Engel & Luigi Mittone & Azzurra Morreale, 2024. "Outcomes or participation? Experimentally testing competing sources of legitimacy for taxation," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 62(2), pages 563-583, April.
    7. Alexander Kentikelenis & Erik Voeten, 2021. "Legitimacy challenges to the liberal world order: Evidence from United Nations speeches, 1970–2018," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 721-754, October.
    8. Isuru Koswatte & Chandrika Fernando, 2022. "Policy Development for Crisis Management in the Context of Sri Lanka," Managing Global Transitions, University of Primorska, Faculty of Management Koper, vol. 20(3 (Fall)), pages 295-327.
    9. John R. Moodie & Viktor Salenius & Michael Kull, 2022. "From impact assessments towards proactive citizen engagement in EU cohesion policy," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(5), pages 1113-1132, October.
    10. Carina I. Hausladen & Regula Hänggli Fricker & Dirk Helbing & Renato Kunz & Junling Wang & Evangelos Pournaras, 2024. "How voting rules impact legitimacy," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-10, December.
    11. Marlous Blankesteijn & Bart Bossink, 2020. "Assessing the Legitimacy of Technological Innovation in the Public Sphere: Recovering Raw Materials from Waste Water," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-16, November.
    12. Nikitas Konstantinidis & Konstantinos Matakos & Hande Mutlu-Eren, 2019. "“Take back control”? The effects of supranational integration on party-system polarization," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 297-333, June.
    13. Sebastian Blesse & Pierre C Boyer & Friedrich Heinemann & Eckhard Janeba & Anasuya Raj, 2019. "European Monetary Union reform preferences of French and German parliamentarians," European Union Politics, , vol. 20(3), pages 406-424, September.
    14. Maite D. Laméris & Richard Jong-A-Pin & Rasmus Wiese, 2018. "An Experimental Test of the Validity of Survey-Measured Political Ideology," CESifo Working Paper Series 7139, CESifo.
    15. Hugh Breakey, 2021. "Harnessing Multidimensional Legitimacy for Codes of Ethics: A Staged Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(2), pages 359-373, May.
    16. Jieun Lee, 2025. "How foreign multinationals benefit from acquiring domestic firms with political experience," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 769-794, December.
    17. Onna Malou van den Broek, 2024. "How Political Actors Co‐Construct CSR and its Effect on Firms' Political Access: A Discursive Institutionalist View," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(2), pages 595-626, March.
    18. Christoph Klika, 2015. "The Implementation of the REACH Authorisation Procedure on Chemical Substances of Concern: What Kind of Legitimacy?," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 3(1), pages 128-138.
    19. Eugenio Salvati, 2024. "Debating Legitimacy and Solidarity in the European Parliament: Patterns of Opposition and Conflict During the Pandemic," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(6), pages 1692-1711, November.
    20. Blesse, Sebastian & Havlik, Annika & Heinemann, Friedrich, 2019. "Searching for a Euro reform consensus: The perspective from Central and Eastern Europe," ZEW Expertises, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research, number 201191.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ecopol:v:37:y:2025:i:2:p:724-734. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0954-1985 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.