Talking Europe, Using Europe: The EU and Parliamentary Competition in Italy and Spain (1986–2006)

Abstract

The analysis of how the European Union (EU) affects domestic political competition and political parties has mainly been centred on elections, whereas studies on parliaments have focused more on institutional adaptation. However, parliaments also provide forums for debating alternative domestic and EU policies. This study examines how Europe is used in parliamentary competition in Italy and Spain by analysing party discourses in investiture and budget debates. Covering two decades (1986–2006), the study investigates whether or not the EU has gained importance over time in the way parties use European policies, the evolution of party positions towards the EU and, more generally, the consequences of integration for party policies and discourse.

Keywords:

• Italy
• Spain
• parliaments
• parties
• European Union
• debates

Note on Author

Fabio García Lupato is a Lecturer in the Department of Political Science and Administration I, University Complutense of Madrid, Spain; email: [email protected]

Notes

1. In the Italian case we need to disentangle the different positions of individual parties that compete in elections under the same platform but have their own parliamentary groups.

2. The real gross domestic product growth rate shows that in the period 1992–2007, Spanish mean growth was 3.24 while Italy's was 1.41. From 1999 to 2007 the mean rate was 3.74 and 1.46 for Spain and Italy, respectively.

3. All translations from Italian and Spanish are by the author.

4. Furthermore, monetary policy, limited to inflation control, suited Spanish economic needs but penalised the Italian need for economic growth with low inflation.

5. The data on parties in government reflect their position, as all Spanish governments have been single-party governments. Both socialists (1982–96 and 2004–8) and conservatives (1996–2004) had an absolute majority or just a relative majority of seats.

6. CIU supported the socialist government during the period 1993–95, and CIU and PNV, with other minor parties, supported the PP government in the 1996–2000 legislature.

7. For example, as external supporters of the government they conceptualise Europe as a positive impact in investiture and budget debates (86 and 53 per cent, respectively), as an incentive for domestic action (86 and 67 per cent), or evaluate European policies positively, with 53 per cent accounts in budget debates (and no negative account) showing their positive stance on the EMU. As the PP and PSOE, they have almost no negative or mixed perception of the European impacts.

8. With 3.7 per cent of mixed impacts of Europe, 2.8 per cent of restriction for action and 4.6 per cent of mixed evaluations.

9. No positive references and 2.8 per cent of impact of Europe as a constraint and restriction for action and 3.7 per cent of negative evaluations of European policies.

10. For a contrasting view, see Chari, Iltanen, and Kritzinger (2004).