ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the latter and their performance regarding gender equality and gendered representation in the European Parliament illuminating connections between Europarties, national parties, and European Parliament political groups. It examines formal and informal working procedures in the European Parliament, specifically those regarding group-cohesion rates and the left–right divide versus consensus-oriented practices of grand coalitions. The 2014 European elections witnessed a fourth landmark development: the first Spitzenkandidatur process for the European Commission presidency, invented by Europarties, stipulating that the European Council should be “taking into account the elections to the European Parliament” in the nomination. The arrival of Eurosceptic and far-right conservative nationalists since the late 1990s brought about two fundamental changes in the European Parliament: “outspoken essentializing views on women were voiced” and “subsidiarity, respect for sovereignty, and cultural differences were used as arguments to undermine initiatives for the supranational promotion of gender equality”.
