Paper Titles & Abstracts

Contemporary EP research has focused on analysing the behaviour of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) within the formal structures of the Parliament, e.g. in political groups and parliamentary committees. Thereby, less is known about informal practices occurring within the EP which also contribute to policy processes.Therefore, the paper delivers a qualitative study on the role and functions of Intergroups in the EP. Given the rise of the European Parliament to be co-legislator it is more important than ever to have a thorough understanding of the political processes inside the Parliament that shape the EP's institutional make-up, the politics of the EP and its impact on EU politics.The paper makes two main contributions to the existing literature: By studying cross-party coalition-building beyond the official structure of the Parliament, the paper explores potential functions of Intergroups, e.g. to create wider consensus across heterogeneous political groups which is often essential in the EP or to serve as a platform to gain expertise which is important considering that public policy-making is getting more complex and technical.By drawing on structural constructivist theory of European integration a new theoretical perspective is employed to the EP. The Bourdieusian concepts of field, habitus and capital are applied to analyze how MEPs establish structured power relations by mobilizing different types of capital.Combining theory with original empirical data from interviews with MEPs and policy advisor of the political groups, this paper provides a novel insight into how transnational parliamentarians organize democratic practices at supranational level.