Some Seats Are More Equal Than Others. Mega-Seat Distribution In The European Parliment

Within the European Parliament (EP) mega-seats are allocated with a two-level game: the first one is among the European Parliamentary Groups (EPGs) and the second one is within the EPGs and among national parties. So far in literature we can find studies focusing on committees allocation (McElroy 2006; Yordanova 2009) or reports distribution (Kaeding 2004) but a systematic analysis about “who get what” within the EP is still missing. This paper tries to fulfil this gap and offers an exploratory approach of legislative mega-seat distribution at committees and presidency level in the EP. In particular, the paper will focus on the distribution among EPGs as well as national parties and it will try to explain “who get what” assuming a linear-proportionality as (first) explanatory hypothesis. Moreover, since mega-seats are distributed in the EP at the beginning of the legislative term and after two years and half, the paper will analyse office allocation in each of this two moments. The analysis will cover the period from 1979 to 2012 and it will focus on 14 distributional moments (2 for each terms).