Seniority and partisan credentials? A longitudinal analysis of the appointment of party group coordinators in the European Parliament (1979-2019).

Party group coordinators are key actors in the European Parliament's committees given their participation in coordination meetings that decide on procedural and substantive aspects of committee work (e.g. the allocation of rapporteurships; committee hearings), or their role in the formulation of the group's position and in steering negotiations on specific policies (Hix and Hoyland 2014; Ripoll Servent 2019). Daniel and Thierse (2018) focused on group coordinators in EP8 and showed that their selection was positively influenced by committee seniority and by having been a group coordinator in the past, whereas pure expertise, ties with interest groups and the degree of loyalty to the party group do not seem to matter. Nevertheless, it is necessary to assess whether these patterns reflect the relatively recent empowerment of the European Parliament or they are representative for a modus operandi that has been in place since the early days of the EP. This paper does exactly that by drawing on an unique longitudinal dataset which includes all party group coordinators of the EPP, S&D and ALDE in the first eight terms of the EP (1979-2019). Our preliminary analyses indicate a considerable turnover in the personnel holding this office in early terms of the EP and a selection logic that privileges in-house policy specialisation that seems to have been strengthened over time, parallel to the legislature's increased professionalization and empowerment.