Abstract
The constituency member constitutes a dominant role in the French Parliament. The great focus placed solely on constituency issues by many elected representatives largely explains why EU issues are often neglected. Yet, MPs seek to act as lobbyists of their region when European policies impact on them. This is especially the case for cohesion funds and the Common Agriculture Policy. Most of the time, the mobilization is not influential given the MPs limited institutional position in multi-level governance. Some representatives, however embedded in complex network, are able to act as honest brokers.
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Notes
- 1.
French regions are divided into about 100 départements, an administrative unit dating from the French Revolution.
- 2.
Although it does not correspond to a legal position, the expression Député-maire is commonly used in French to designate politicians who are simultaneously MPs and mayors.
- 3.
With these mandates he was in approximately 400th place in the ranking published by Le Monde in October 2009, taking into account the budget of the local government (the first holding the most significant cumulation).
- 4.
Mayor of Rouen from 1968 to 1993, Lecanuet was a prominent leader of the centre-right from the 1960s to the late 1980s.
- 5.
Huwart was mayor of Nogent-le-Rotrou, a city in a rural region of Western France, population 10,000.
- 6.
La Dépêche, 22 January 2009. The surcharge was eventually removed some months later.
- 7.
The DATAR is a national agency. The department for European social funds of the Minister for Social Affairs is responsible for the social aspect of the cohesion policy.
- 8.
Law no. 2014-58 of 27 January 2014.
- 9.
These examples are drawn from a confidential study conducted in 2005 with people working in local administration services.
- 10.
Managed by the Rapporteur General (in charge of scrutinising the Finance Bill) and the Chair of the Finance Committee within each house, the parliamentary reserve is intended to support local projects, especially investment programmes. It was regularly criticised and was eliminated in 2017.
- 11.
Objective One concerns underdeveloped regions and Objective Two concerns the reconversion of struggling regions. Corsica or the DOM are also among the beneficiaries of Objective One. Bruce Millan was the European Commissioner for Regional Policy and Jacques Delors was the President of the Commission.
- 12.
Jean-Pierre Chevènement, elected from the Belfort area, was Minister for Home Affairs under Jospin.
- 13.
Libération, 16 July 2005.
- 14.
In 1984 he was Junior Secretary General of the RPR when Chirac was President and had been given the responsibility of monitoring the federations and organisations—a position of trust if ever there was one. In 2001, he became Vice-President of the Friends of Jacques Chirac Society.
- 15.
INSEE, results from the census of March 1999.
- 16.
Searing uses the concept of ‘role distance’ to analyse constituency members (1994, pp. 156–159).
- 17.
Laurence Dumont was elected Regional Councillor in Basse-Normandie area in 1998 and resigned in 2001 to take up a seat in opposition, in the Town Council in Caen.
- 18.
As a suppléant, the suppléant is elected alongside the candidate and, in specific circumstances, takes the MP’s place should she resign.
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Rozenberg, O. (2020). The Constituency Member: Dilettante, Lobbyist or Mediator. In: The French Parliament and the European Union. French Politics, Society and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19791-9_4
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